blessesvsbussesWhat's the difference?

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

Which to use

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

#46,341
“blesses” frequency rank
#37,358
“busses” frequency rank
83699
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature blesses busses
Definition third-person singular simple present indicative of bless plural of bus

Letter map: blesses vs busses

Shared letters muted; letters that set blesses and busses apart highlighted. Shared run: 5.

7 ch
blesses
6 ch
busses

Role in the sentence - blesses and busses

Our dataset has no pronunciation recorded for both members, so the reliable separator here is grammatical: blesses is averb and bussesanoun. On the page they differ by 1 letter(s) in length. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 83699, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

blesses is recorded at frequency rank #46,341, classified as averb, pronounced /ˈblɛsɪz/. busses is at rank #37,358, tagged as anoun.

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 83699, this pair ranks #13,329 of 530,003 scored English confusable pairs - among the most confusable pairs.

Orthographic DNA of blesses vs busses

Shared letters: bes. Private to "blesses": l. Private to "busses": u.

"blesses" · 7 letters · shape CCVCCVC  ·  "busses" · 6 letters · shape CVCCVC

Known mistypes of this pair

  • blessesbblesses · belsses · bleses · blesess · blessess · blessse · bllesses · blseses
  • bussesbbusses · bsuses · buses · busess · bussess · bussse · ubsses

Frequently Asked Questions

Is swapping "blesses" for "busses" ever safe?
No - they are not even the same part of speech. "blesses" is a verb and "busses" a noun, so a sentence built for one is usually ungrammatical with the other.
In ordinary English text, does "blesses" or "busses" show up more?
"busses" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #37,358 in our English list, against #46,341 for "blesses". 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 "blesses" and "busses".

  • Full dictionary entry for "blesses" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "busses" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #13,329 of 530,003 scored English confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "blesses" and "busses" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "basset vs busses". 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 #13,329 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