Which to use
“crummy” and “crusty” are a confusable English pair: similar on the page, but distinct in meaning, check the gloss before you choose.
- #48,165
- “crummy” frequency rank
- #28,503
- “crusty” frequency rank
- 76668
- confusion score
Side-by-Side Comparison
| Feature | crummy | crusty |
|---|---|---|
| Definition | Bad; poor. | Having a crust, especially a thick one. |
Where the eye mixes crummy and crusty
Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 4 letters in sequence. crummy and crusty follow the identical consonant-vowel pattern (CCVCCV). Same shape at a glance is often the real trap, independent of shared letters.
Look-alike desk: crummy vs crusty
A purely visual mix-up. crummy (/ˈkɹʌmi/) and crusty (/ˈkɹʌsti/) are said differently, so reading them aloud is the quickest way to catch the wrong one. On the page they stay close: they share most of their letters but differ in 2 positions. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 76668, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.
crummy is recorded at frequency rank #48,165, classified as anadj, pronounced /ˈkɹʌmi/. crusty is at rank #28,503, tagged as anadj, pronounced /ˈkɹʌsti/.
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 76668, this pair ranks #29,449 of 530,003 scored English confusable pairs - among the most confusable pairs.
Orthographic DNA of crummy vs crusty
Shared letters: cruy. Private to "crummy": m. Private to "crusty": st.
"crummy" · 6 letters · shape CCVCCV · "crusty" · 6 letters · shape CCVCCV
Known mistypes of this pair
Frequently Asked Questions
Is swapping "crummy" for "crusty" ever safe?
Frequency check: "crummy" vs "crusty" - which ranks higher?
What to do next
Visual near-miss handled. Browse the word pages or a neighbour when the next look-alike shows up.
- Full dictionary entry for "crummy" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
- Full dictionary entry for "crusty" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
- This pair ranks #29,449 of 530,003 scored English confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
- "crummy" and "crusty" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "crummy vs crump". 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 #29,449 of 530,003 scored English pairs, corpus vintage 2026-09-03, not spelling advice.