blushesvsbushelWhat's the difference?

Which to use

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

#36,456
“blushes” frequency rank
#37,357
“bushel” frequency rank
73813
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature blushes bushel
Definition plural of blush A dry measure, containing four pecks, eight gallons, or thirty-two quarts; equivalent in volume to approximately 0.0364 cubic meters (imperial bushel) or 0.0352 cubic meters (U.S. bushel).

Where the eye mixes blushes and bushel

Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 5 letters in sequence. blushes runs 7 letters (CCVCCVC) against bushel's 6 (CVCCVC) - the length gap alone is often enough to separate them once you know to check it.

7 ch
blushes
6 ch
bushel

Why the eye confuses blushes with bushel

A purely visual mix-up. blushes (/ˈblʌʃɪz/) and bushel (/ˈbʊʃəl/) 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 73813, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

blushes is recorded at frequency rank #36,456, classified as anoun, pronounced /ˈblʌʃɪz/. bushel is at rank #37,357, tagged as anoun, pronounced /ˈbʊʃəl/.

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 73813, this pair ranks #38,340 of 530,003 scored English confusable pairs - among the most confusable pairs.

Orthographic DNA of blushes vs bushel

Shared letters: behlsu. Private to "blushes": -. Private to "bushel": -.

"blushes" · 7 letters · shape CCVCCVC  ·  "bushel" · 6 letters · shape CVCCVC

Known mistypes of this pair

  • blushes ← bblushes · bllushes · blsuhes · bluhses · blusehs · blushess · blushhes · blushse
  • bushel ← bbushel · bsuhel · buhsel · busehl · bushell · bushhel · bushle · busshel

Frequently Asked Questions

Do "blushes" and "bushel" mean the same thing in a sentence?
No. They are said differently (/ˈblʌʃɪz/ versus /ˈbʊʃəl/) and carry different meanings; reading the sentence aloud is usually enough to catch the wrong one.
Which is more common, "blushes" or "bushel"?
"blushes" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #36,456 in our English list, against #37,357 for "bushel". The two are close in frequency, so neither is a safe default; check the meaning rather than guessing.

After this comparison

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

  • Full dictionary entry for "blushes" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "bushel" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #38,340 of 530,003 scored English confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "blushes" and "bushel" 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 #38,340 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