crustsvscultsWhich spelling fits?

Which to use

“crusts” and “cults” are a confusable English pair: similar on the page, but distinct in meaning, check the gloss before you choose.

#45,868
“crusts” frequency rank
#23,798
“cults” frequency rank
69666
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature crusts cults
Definition plural of crust plural of cult

Where the eye mixes crusts and cults

Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 4 letters in sequence. crusts runs 6 letters (CCVCCC) against cults's 5 (CVCCC) - the length gap alone is often enough to separate them once you know to check it.

6 ch
crusts
5 ch
cults

Visual trap between crusts and cults

A purely visual mix-up. crusts (/kɹʌsts/) and cults (/kʌlts/) 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 69666, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

crusts is recorded at frequency rank #45,868, classified as anoun, pronounced /kɹʌsts/. cults is at rank #23,798, tagged as anoun, pronounced /kʌlts/.

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 69666, this pair ranks #53,623 of 530,003 scored English confusable pairs - among the most confusable pairs.

Orthographic DNA of crusts vs cults

Shared letters: cstu. Private to "crusts": r. Private to "cults": l.

"crusts" · 6 letters · shape CCVCCC  ·  "cults" · 5 letters · shape CVCCC

Known mistypes of this pair

  • crusts ← ccrusts · crrusts · crsuts · crussts · crustss · crustts · crutss · cursts
  • cults ← ccults · cluts · cullts · culst · cultss · cultts · cutls · uclts

Frequently Asked Questions

Do "crusts" and "cults" mean the same thing in a sentence?
No. They are said differently (/kɹʌsts/ versus /kʌlts/) and carry different meanings; reading the sentence aloud is usually enough to catch the wrong one.
Which is more common, "crusts" or "cults"?
"cults" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #23,798 in our English list, against #45,868 for "crusts". The two are close in frequency, so neither is a safe default; check the meaning rather than guessing.

Useful next steps

Eye-level mix-up between "crusts" and "cults" is sorted above. Next: full entries or other pairs that share a letter shape.

  • Full dictionary entry for "crusts" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "cults" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #53,623 of 530,003 scored English confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "crusts" and "cults" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "crusted vs crusts". 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 #53,623 of 530,003 scored English pairs, corpus vintage 2026-09-03, not spelling advice.

Source: Wiktionary (via kaikki.org) Structured Wiktionary extract

Source: FrequencyWords open word-frequency list