Which to use
“abused” and “amuses” are a confusable English pair: similar on the page, but distinct in meaning, check the gloss before you choose.
- #7,090
- “abused” frequency rank
- #48,056
- “amuses” frequency rank
- 55146
- confusion score
Side-by-Side Comparison
| Feature | abused | amuses |
|---|---|---|
| Definition | simple past and past participle of abuse | third-person singular simple present indicative of amuse |
Where the eye mixes abused and amuses
Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 4 letters in sequence. abused and amuses follow the identical consonant-vowel pattern (VCVCVC). Same shape at a glance is often the real trap, independent of shared letters.
Visual trap between abused and amuses
A purely visual mix-up. abused (/əˈbjuːzd/) and amuses (/əˈmjuːzɪz/) 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 55146, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.
abused is recorded at frequency rank #7,090, classified as averb, pronounced /əˈbjuːzd/. amuses is at rank #48,056, tagged as averb, pronounced /əˈmjuːzɪz/.
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 55146, this pair ranks #135,858 of 530,003 scored English confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.
Orthographic DNA of abused vs amuses
Shared letters: aesu. Private to "abused": bd. Private to "amuses": m.
"abused" · 6 letters · shape VCVCVC · "amuses" · 6 letters · shape VCVCVC
Known mistypes of this pair
Frequently Asked Questions
Do "abused" and "amuses" mean the same thing in a sentence?
Frequency check: "abused" vs "amuses" - which ranks higher?
What to do next
Eye-level mix-up between "abused" and "amuses" is sorted above. Next: full entries or other pairs that share a letter shape.
- Full dictionary entry for "abused" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
- Full dictionary entry for "amuses" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
- This pair ranks #135,858 of 530,003 scored English confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
- "abused" and "amuses" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "amulets vs amuses". 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 #135,858 of 530,003 scored English pairs, corpus vintage 2026-09-03, not spelling advice.