Which to use
“blush” and “bolus” are a confusable English pair: similar on the page, but distinct in meaning, check the gloss before you choose.
- #13,671
- “blush” frequency rank
- #46,942
- “bolus” frequency rank
- 60613
- confusion score
Side-by-Side Comparison
| Feature | blush | bolus |
|---|---|---|
| Definition | An act of blushing; a pink or red glow on the face caused by embarrassment, shame, shyness, love, etc. | A round mass of something, especially of chewed food in the mouth or alimentary canal. |
Where the eye mixes blush and bolus
Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 4 letters in sequence. blush (CCVCC) and bolus (CVCVC) run the same length but a different consonant-vowel pattern - the shape difference is usually the fastest tell.
Why the eye confuses blush with bolus
A purely visual mix-up. blush (/blʌʃ/) and bolus (/ˈbəʊləs/) are said differently, so reading them aloud is the quickest way to catch the wrong one. On the page they stay close: they share most of their letters but differ in 4 positions. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 60613, 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/. bolus is at rank #46,942, tagged as anoun, pronounced /ˈbəʊləs/.
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 60613, this pair ranks #99,191 of 530,003 scored English confusable pairs - among the most confusable pairs.
Orthographic DNA of blush vs bolus
Shared letters: blsu. Private to "blush": h. Private to "bolus": o.
"blush" · 5 letters · shape CCVCC · "bolus" · 5 letters · shape CVCVC
Known mistypes of this pair
Frequently Asked Questions
Can "blush" and "bolus" be used interchangeably?
Which is more common, "blush" or "bolus"?
What to do next
Pronunciation already separates them, if the page still looks alike, the dictionary links below settle it.
- Full dictionary entry for "blush" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
- Full dictionary entry for "bolus" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
- This pair ranks #99,191 of 530,003 scored English confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
- "blush" and "bolus" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "bodes vs bolus". 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 #99,191 of 530,003 scored English pairs, corpus vintage 2026-09-03, not spelling advice.