Which to use
“blast” and “blush” are a confusable English pair: similar on the page, but distinct in meaning, check the gloss before you choose.
- #4,140
- “blast” frequency rank
- #13,671
- “blush” frequency rank
- 17811
- confusion score
Side-by-Side Comparison
| Feature | blast | blush |
|---|---|---|
| Definition | A violent gust of wind (in windy weather) or apparent wind (around a moving vehicle). | An act of blushing; a pink or red glow on the face caused by embarrassment, shame, shyness, love, etc. |
Where the eye mixes blast and blush
Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 3 letters in sequence.
Visual trap between blast and blush
A purely visual mix-up. blast (/blɑːst/) and blush (/blʌʃ/) 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 17811, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.
blast is recorded at frequency rank #4,140, classified as anoun, pronounced /blɑːst/. blush is at rank #13,671, tagged as anoun, pronounced /blʌʃ/.
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 17811, this pair ranks #448,964 of 530,003 scored English confusable pairs - a relatively easy-to-tell-apart pair.
Orthographic DNA of blast vs blush
Shared letters: bls. Private to "blast": at. Private to "blush": hu.
"blast" · 5 letters · shape CCVCC · "blush" · 5 letters · shape CCVCC
Known mistypes of this pair
Frequently Asked Questions
Is swapping "blast" for "blush" ever safe?
Which is more common, "blast" or "blush"?
What to do next
Eye-level mix-up between "blast" and "blush" is sorted above. Next: full entries or other pairs that share a letter shape.
- Full dictionary entry for "blast" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
- Full dictionary entry for "blush" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
- This pair ranks #448,964 of 530,003 scored English confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
- "blast" and "blush" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "blush vs bolus". 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 #448,964 of 530,003 scored English pairs, corpus vintage 2026-09-03, not spelling advice.