blessedvsblushedWhat's the difference?

Quick tell: blessed is a adjective, blushed is a verb, so they fill different roles in a sentence.

Which to use

“blessed” is an adjective and “blushed” is a verb - they look or sound alike but fill different roles in a sentence.

#4,826
“blessed” frequency rank
#44,652
“blushed” frequency rank
49478
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature blessed blushed
Definition Having divine aid, or protection, or other blessing. simple past and past participle of blush

Where the eye mixes blessed and blushed

Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 5 letters in sequence.

7 ch
blessed
7 ch
blushed

Visual trap between blessed and blushed

These two trip readers on the page rather than in the ear: blessed is /ˈblɛsɪd/ while blushed is /blʌʃt/. Spoken aloud the problem disappears. In writing it persists, because they share most of their letters but differ in 2 positions, and the parts of speech differ too (adjective vs verb), which is usually the fastest check. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 49478, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

blessed is recorded at frequency rank #4,826, classified as anadj, pronounced /ˈblɛsɪd/. blushed is at rank #44,652, tagged as averb, pronounced /blʌʃt/.

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 49478, this pair ranks #183,199 of 530,003 scored English confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.

Orthographic DNA of blessed vs blushed

Shared letters: bdels. Private to "blessed": -. Private to "blushed": hu.

"blessed" · 7 letters · shape CCVCCVC  ·  "blushed" · 7 letters · shape CCVCCVC

Known mistypes of this pair

  • blessedbblessed · belssed · blesed · blesesd · blessde · blessedd · bllessed · blsesed
  • blushedbblushed · bllushed · blsuhed · bluhsed · blusehd · blushde · blushedd · blushhed

Frequently Asked Questions

Is swapping "blessed" for "blushed" ever safe?
No - they are not even the same part of speech. "blessed" is an adjective and "blushed" a verb, so a sentence built for one is usually ungrammatical with the other.
Frequency check: "blessed" vs "blushed" - which ranks higher?
"blessed" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #4,826 in our English list, against #44,652 for "blushed". The two are close in frequency, so neither is a safe default; check the meaning rather than guessing.

After this comparison

Visual near-miss handled. Browse the word pages or a neighbour when the next look-alike shows up.

  • Full dictionary entry for "blessed" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "blushed" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #183,199 of 530,003 scored English confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "blessed" and "blushed" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "blushed vs bluster". 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 #183,199 of 530,003 scored English pairs, corpus vintage 2026-09-03, not spelling advice.

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

Source: FrequencyWords open word-frequency list