blursvsbunsTell them apart

Which to use

“blurs” and “buns” are a confusable English pair: similar on the page, but distinct in meaning, check the gloss before you choose.

#45,815
“blurs” frequency rank
#17,311
“buns” frequency rank
63126
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature blurs buns
Definition plural of blur plural of bun

Where the eye mixes blurs and buns

Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 3 letters in sequence.

5 ch
blurs
4 ch
buns

Why the eye confuses blurs with buns

A purely visual mix-up. blurs (/blɜːz/) and buns (/bʌnz/) are said differently, so reading them aloud is the quickest way to catch the wrong one. On the page they stay close: they differ by 1 letter(s) in length. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 63126, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

blurs is recorded at frequency rank #45,815, classified as anoun, pronounced /blɜːz/. buns is at rank #17,311, tagged as anoun, pronounced /bʌnz/.

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 63126, this pair ranks #84,723 of 530,003 scored English confusable pairs - among the most confusable pairs.

Orthographic DNA of blurs vs buns

Shared letters: bsu. Private to "blurs": lr. Private to "buns": n.

"blurs" · 5 letters · shape CCVCC  ·  "buns" · 4 letters · shape CVCC

Known mistypes of this pair

  • blursbblurs · bllurs · blrus · blurrs · blurss · blusr · bulrs · lburs
  • bunsbbuns · bnus · bunns · bunss · busn · ubns

Frequently Asked Questions

Is swapping "blurs" for "buns" ever safe?
No. They are said differently (/blɜːz/ versus /bʌnz/) and carry different meanings; reading the sentence aloud is usually enough to catch the wrong one.
In ordinary English text, does "blurs" or "buns" show up more?
"buns" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #17,311 in our English list, against #45,815 for "blurs". The two are close in frequency, so neither is a safe default; check the meaning rather than guessing.

What to do next

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

  • Full dictionary entry for "blurs" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "buns" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #84,723 of 530,003 scored English confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "blurs" and "buns" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "blurs vs bursa". 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 #84,723 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