Which to use
“crusty” and “cushy” are a confusable English pair: similar on the page, but distinct in meaning, check the gloss before you choose.
- #28,503
- “crusty” frequency rank
- #43,589
- “cushy” frequency rank
- 72092
- confusion score
Side-by-Side Comparison
| Feature | crusty | cushy |
|---|---|---|
| Definition | Having a crust, especially a thick one. | Making few demands; comfortable, easy. |
Where the eye mixes crusty and cushy
Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 4 letters in sequence. crusty runs 6 letters (CCVCCV) against cushy's 5 (CVCCV) - the length gap alone is often enough to separate them once you know to check it.
Visual trap between crusty and cushy
A purely visual mix-up. crusty (/ˈkɹʌsti/) and cushy (/ˈkʊʃi/) 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 72092, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.
crusty is recorded at frequency rank #28,503, classified as anadj, pronounced /ˈkɹʌsti/. cushy is at rank #43,589, tagged as anadj, pronounced /ˈkʊʃi/.
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 72092, this pair ranks #44,258 of 530,003 scored English confusable pairs - among the most confusable pairs.
Orthographic DNA of crusty vs cushy
Shared letters: csuy. Private to "crusty": rt. Private to "cushy": h.
"crusty" · 6 letters · shape CCVCCV · "cushy" · 5 letters · shape CVCCV
Known mistypes of this pair
Frequently Asked Questions
Do "crusty" and "cushy" mean the same thing in a sentence?
Frequency check: "crusty" vs "cushy" - which ranks higher?
After this comparison
Pronunciation already separates them, if the page still looks alike, the dictionary links below settle it.
- Full dictionary entry for "crusty" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
- Full dictionary entry for "cushy" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
- This pair ranks #44,258 of 530,003 scored English confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
- "crusty" and "cushy" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "cubby vs cushy". 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 #44,258 of 530,003 scored English pairs, corpus vintage 2026-09-03, not spelling advice.