turnvstuskTell them apart

Quick tell: turn is a verb, tusk is a noun, so they fill different roles in a sentence.

Which to use

“turn” is a verb and “tusk” is a noun - they look or sound alike but fill different roles in a sentence.

#14,188
“turn” frequency rank
#29,824
“tusk” frequency rank
44012
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature turn tusk
Definition 2. Person Singular Imperativ Präsens Aktiv des Verbs turnen Stoßzahn; sehr langer und spitzer Zahn, der aus dem Maul des Tieres herausragt und meist paarweise vorkommt, aber auch einzeln (zum Beispiel beim Narwal)

Letter map: turn vs tusk

Shared letters muted; letters that set turn and tusk apart highlighted. Shared run: 2.

4 ch
turn
4 ch
tusk

Part-of-speech tell for turn / tusk

Our dataset has no pronunciation recorded for both members, so the reliable separator here is grammatical: turn is averb and tuskanoun. On the page they share most of their letters but differ in 2 positions. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 44012, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

turn is recorded at frequency rank #14,188, classified as averb, pronounced [tʊʁn]. tusk is at rank #29,824, tagged as anoun, pronounced […].

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 44012, this pair ranks #1,399,894 of 2,006,359 scored German confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.

Orthographic DNA of turn vs tusk

Shared letters: tu. Private to "turn": nr. Private to "tusk": ks.

"turn" · 4 letters · shape CVCC  ·  "tusk" · 4 letters · shape CVCC

Known mistypes of this pair

  • turntrun · tturn · tunr · turnn · turrn · utrn
  • tusktsuk · ttusk · tuks · tuskk · tussk · utsk

Frequently Asked Questions

Do "turn" and "tusk" mean the same thing in a sentence?
No - they are not even the same part of speech. "turn" is a verb and "tusk" a noun, so a sentence built for one is usually ungrammatical with the other.
Frequency check: "turn" vs "tusk" - which ranks higher?
"turn" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #14,188 in our German list, against #29,824 for "tusk". The two are close in frequency, so neither is a safe default; check the meaning rather than guessing.

After this comparison

Done with this confusable. These links stay specific to "turn" and "tusk".

  • Full dictionary entry for "turn" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "tusk" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #1,399,894 of 2,006,359 scored German confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "turn" and "tusk" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "puzzles vs tusk". 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 #1,399,894 of 2,006,359 scored German pairs, corpus vintage 2026-09-03, not spelling advice.

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

Source: FrequencyWords open word-frequency list