Which to use
“crowd” is a verb and “crows” is a noun - they look or sound alike but fill different roles in a sentence.
- #2,034
- “crowd” frequency rank
- #15,596
- “crows” frequency rank
- 17630
- confusion score
Side-by-Side Comparison
| Feature | crowd | crows |
|---|---|---|
| Definition | To press forward; to advance by pushing. | plural of crow |
Where the eye mixes crowd and crows
Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 4 letters in sequence.
Look-alike desk: crowd vs crows
These two trip readers on the page rather than in the ear: crowd is /kɹaʊd/ while crows is /kɹəʊz/. Spoken aloud the problem disappears. In writing it persists, because they differ by a single letter - d in “crowd” becomes s in “crows”, and the parts of speech differ too (verb vs noun), which is usually the fastest check. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 17630, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.
crowd is recorded at frequency rank #2,034, classified as averb, pronounced /kɹaʊd/. crows is at rank #15,596, tagged as anoun, pronounced /kɹəʊz/.
Glosses for this pair are partially populated in our dataset, but the full side-by-side definitions above should still guide you to the right choice.
With a confusion score of 17630, this pair ranks #450,178 of 530,003 scored English confusable pairs - a relatively easy-to-tell-apart pair.
Orthographic DNA of crowd vs crows
Shared letters: corw. Private to "crowd": d. Private to "crows": s.
"crowd" · 5 letters · shape CCVCC · "crows" · 5 letters · shape CCVCC
Known mistypes of this pair
Frequently Asked Questions
Is swapping "crowd" for "crows" ever safe?
Which is more common, "crowd" or "crows"?
Useful next steps
Eye-level mix-up between "crowd" and "crows" is sorted above. Next: full entries or other pairs that share a letter shape.
- Full dictionary entry for "crowd" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
- Full dictionary entry for "crows" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
- This pair ranks #450,178 of 530,003 scored English confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
- "crowd" and "crows" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "Croat vs crows". Nearby pair
- Recorded mistypes exist for at least one side of this pair, useful when a spell-checker or OCR lands on the wrong form. See mistypes
Confusion rank #450,178 of 530,003 scored English pairs, corpus vintage 2026-09-03, not spelling advice.