crash or clash?

[teleostomi]

Cartilage acts like a pad that keeps my bones from crashing into each other.
Is it OK to replace "crashing" with "clashing"?

[oishii]

Is it OK to replace "crashing" with "clashing"?

'Clashing' to me suggest more of a 'conflict'... a conflict of colours, opinions, ideas and so on. It suggests that ideas or things are 'out of harmony, out of sync.'

Whereas, crashing implies a collision of sorts, a banging together of two things, that the items are physically bumping into each other.

Therefore, I would not choose to replace 'crashing' with 'clashing'. If you are looking for an alternate word, you might consider 'collide'.

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