Which to use
“crunches” and “crushes” are a confusable English pair: similar on the page, but distinct in meaning, check the gloss before you choose.
- #39,265
- “crunches” frequency rank
- #23,796
- “crushes” frequency rank
- 63061
- confusion score
Side-by-Side Comparison
| Feature | crunches | crushes |
|---|---|---|
| Definition | plural of crunch | plural of crush |
Where the eye mixes crunches and crushes
Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 6 letters in sequence. crunches runs 8 letters (CCVCCCVC) against crushes's 7 (CCVCCVC) - the length gap alone is often enough to separate them once you know to check it.
Why the eye confuses crunches with crushes
A purely visual mix-up. crunches (/ˈkɹʌnt͡ʃɪz/) and crushes (/ˈkɹʌʃɪz/) are said differently, so reading them aloud is the quickest way to catch the wrong one. On the page they stay close: they differ by 1 letter(s) in length. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 63061, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.
crunches is recorded at frequency rank #39,265, classified as anoun, pronounced /ˈkɹʌnt͡ʃɪz/. crushes is at rank #23,796, tagged as anoun, pronounced /ˈkɹʌʃɪz/.
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 63061, this pair ranks #85,118 of 530,003 scored English confusable pairs - among the most confusable pairs.
Orthographic DNA of crunches vs crushes
Shared letters: cehrsu. Private to "crunches": n. Private to "crushes": -.
"crunches" · 8 letters · shape CCVCCCVC · "crushes" · 7 letters · shape CCVCCVC
Known mistypes of this pair
Frequently Asked Questions
Do "crunches" and "crushes" mean the same thing in a sentence?
In ordinary English text, does "crunches" or "crushes" show up more?
What to do next
Eye-level mix-up between "crunches" and "crushes" is sorted above. Next: full entries or other pairs that share a letter shape.
- Full dictionary entry for "crunches" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
- Full dictionary entry for "crushes" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
- This pair ranks #85,118 of 530,003 scored English confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
- "crunches" and "crushes" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "crunched vs crunches". 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 #85,118 of 530,003 scored English pairs, corpus vintage 2026-09-03, not spelling advice.