Which to use
“blush” and “bus” are a confusable English pair: similar on the page, but distinct in meaning, check the gloss before you choose.
- #13,671
- “blush” frequency rank
- #1,554
- “bus” frequency rank
- 15225
- confusion score
Side-by-Side Comparison
| Feature | blush | bus |
|---|---|---|
| Definition | An act of blushing; a pink or red glow on the face caused by embarrassment, shame, shyness, love, etc. | A motor vehicle for transporting large numbers of people along roads. |
Where the eye mixes blush and bus
Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 3 letters in sequence.
Look-alike desk: blush vs bus
A purely visual mix-up. blush (/blʌʃ/) and bus (/bʌs/) 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 letter(s) in length. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 15225, 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/. bus is at rank #1,554, tagged as anoun, pronounced /bʌs/.
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 15225, this pair ranks #465,307 of 530,003 scored English confusable pairs - a relatively easy-to-tell-apart pair.
Orthographic DNA of blush vs bus
Shared letters: bsu. Private to "blush": hl. Private to "bus": -.
"blush" · 5 letters · shape CCVCC · "bus" · 3 letters · shape CVC
Known mistypes of this pair
- blush ← bblush · bllush · blsuh · bluhs · blushh · blussh · bulsh · lbush
Frequently Asked Questions
Can "blush" and "bus" be used interchangeably?
Frequency check: "blush" vs "bus" - which ranks higher?
After this comparison
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 "bus" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
- This pair ranks #465,307 of 530,003 scored English confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
- "blush" and "bus" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "blush 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 #465,307 of 530,003 scored English pairs, corpus vintage 2026-09-03, not spelling advice.