Which to use
“blurred” is an adjective and “blushed” is a verb - they look or sound alike but fill different roles in a sentence.
- #15,577
- “blurred” frequency rank
- #44,652
- “blushed” frequency rank
- 60229
- confusion score
Side-by-Side Comparison
| Feature | blurred | blushed |
|---|---|---|
| Definition | Out of focus; partially obscured; smudged. | simple past and past participle of blush |
Where the eye mixes blurred and blushed
Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 5 letters in sequence.
Visual trap between blurred and blushed
These two trip readers on the page rather than in the ear: blurred is /blɜːd/ 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 60229, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.
blurred is recorded at frequency rank #15,577, classified as anadj, pronounced /blɜːd/. 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 60229, this pair ranks #101,479 of 530,003 scored English confusable pairs - among the most confusable pairs.
Orthographic DNA of blurred vs blushed
Shared letters: bdelu. Private to "blurred": r. Private to "blushed": hs.
"blurred" · 7 letters · shape CCVCCVC · "blushed" · 7 letters · shape CCVCCVC
Known mistypes of this pair
Frequently Asked Questions
Can "blurred" and "blushed" be used interchangeably?
Which is more common, "blurred" or "blushed"?
What to do next
Eye-level mix-up between "blurred" and "blushed" is sorted above. Next: full entries or other pairs that share a letter shape.
- Full dictionary entry for "blurred" 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 #101,479 of 530,003 scored English confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
- "blurred" 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 #101,479 of 530,003 scored English pairs, corpus vintage 2026-09-03, not spelling advice.