Which to use
“ash” is a noun and “awash” is an adjective - they look or sound alike but fill different roles in a sentence.
- #5,477
- “ash” frequency rank
- #38,739
- “awash” frequency rank
- 44216
- confusion score
Side-by-Side Comparison
| Feature | ash | awash |
|---|---|---|
| Definition | Solid remains of a fire. | Washed by the waves or tide (of a rock or strip of shore, or of an anchor, etc., when flush with the surface of the water, so that the waves break over it); covered with water. |
Where the eye mixes ash and awash
Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 3 letters in sequence.
Look-alike desk: ash vs awash
These two trip readers on the page rather than in the ear: ash is /æʃ/ while awash is /əˈwɒʃ/. Spoken aloud the problem disappears. In writing it persists, because they differ by 2 extra letter(s) - “ash” sits inside “awash”, and the parts of speech differ too (noun vs adjective), which is usually the fastest check. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 44216, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.
ash is recorded at frequency rank #5,477, classified as anoun, pronounced /æʃ/. awash is at rank #38,739, tagged as anadj, pronounced /əˈwɒʃ/.
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 44216, this pair ranks #232,650 of 530,003 scored English confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.
Orthographic DNA of ash vs awash
Shared letters: ahs. Private to "ash": -. Private to "awash": w.
"ash" · 3 letters · shape VCC · "awash" · 5 letters · shape VCVCC
Known mistypes of this pair
- awash ← aawsh · awahs · awashh · awassh · awsah · awwash · waash
Frequently Asked Questions
Do "ash" and "awash" mean the same thing in a sentence?
Which is more common, "ash" or "awash"?
After this comparison
Eye-level mix-up between "ash" and "awash" is sorted above. Next: full entries or other pairs that share a letter shape.
- Full dictionary entry for "ash" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
- Full dictionary entry for "awash" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
- This pair ranks #232,650 of 530,003 scored English confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
- "ash" and "awash" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "awash vs aways". 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 #232,650 of 530,003 scored English pairs, corpus vintage 2026-09-03, not spelling advice.