Which to use
“clash” and “crush” are a confusable French pair: similar on the page, but distinct in meaning, check the gloss before you choose.
- #17,377
- “clash” frequency rank
- #24,169
- “crush” frequency rank
- 41546
- confusion score
Side-by-Side Comparison
| Feature | clash | crush |
|---|---|---|
| Definition | Conflit ; dispute. | Attirance ; désir ; pulsion |
Where the eye mixes clash and crush
Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 3 letters in sequence. clash and crush follow the identical consonant-vowel pattern (CCVCC). Same shape at a glance is often the real trap, independent of shared letters.
Look-alike desk: clash vs crush
A purely visual mix-up. clash (\klaʃ\) and crush (\kʁœʃ\) 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 41546, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.
clash is recorded at frequency rank #17,377, classified as anoun, pronounced \klaʃ\. crush is at rank #24,169, tagged as anoun, pronounced \kʁœʃ\.
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 41546, this pair ranks #232,315 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.
Orthographic DNA of clash vs crush
Shared letters: chs. Private to "clash": al. Private to "crush": ru.
"clash" · 5 letters · shape CCVCC · "crush" · 5 letters · shape CCVCC
Known mistypes of this pair
Frequently Asked Questions
Is swapping "clash" for "crush" ever safe?
Frequency check: "clash" vs "crush" - which ranks higher?
After this comparison
Visual near-miss handled. Browse the word pages or a neighbour when the next look-alike shows up.
- Full dictionary entry for "clash" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
- Full dictionary entry for "crush" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
- This pair ranks #232,315 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
- "clash" and "crush" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "crest vs crush". 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 #232,315 of 440,172 scored French pairs, corpus vintage 2026-09-03, not spelling advice.