Which to use
“blush” and “blushes” are a confusable English pair: similar on the page, but distinct in meaning, check the gloss before you choose.
- #13,671
- “blush” frequency rank
- #36,456
- “blushes” frequency rank
- 50127
- confusion score
Side-by-Side Comparison
| Feature | blush | blushes |
|---|---|---|
| Definition | An act of blushing; a pink or red glow on the face caused by embarrassment, shame, shyness, love, etc. | plural of blush |
Where the eye mixes blush and blushes
Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 5 letters in sequence. blush runs 5 letters (CCVCC) against blushes's 7 (CCVCCVC) - the length gap alone is often enough to separate them once you know to check it.
Visual trap between blush and blushes
A purely visual mix-up. blush (/blʌʃ/) and blushes (/ˈblʌʃɪz/) 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 2 extra letter(s) - “blush” sits inside “blushes”. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 50127, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.
blush is recorded at frequency rank #13,671, classified as anoun, pronounced /blʌʃ/. blushes is at rank #36,456, tagged as anoun, pronounced /ˈblʌʃɪz/.
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 50127, this pair ranks #177,100 of 530,003 scored English confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.
Orthographic DNA of blush vs blushes
Shared letters: bhlsu. Private to "blush": -. Private to "blushes": e.
"blush" · 5 letters · shape CCVCC · "blushes" · 7 letters · shape CCVCCVC
Known mistypes of this pair
Frequently Asked Questions
Is swapping "blush" for "blushes" ever safe?
Frequency check: "blush" vs "blushes" - which ranks higher?
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 "blush" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
- Full dictionary entry for "blushes" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
- This pair ranks #177,100 of 530,003 scored English confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
- "blush" and "blushes" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "blushes 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 #177,100 of 530,003 scored English pairs, corpus vintage 2026-09-03, not spelling advice.