blushesvsbushesWhat's the difference?

Which to use

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

#36,456
“blushes” frequency rank
#13,291
“bushes” frequency rank
49747
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature blushes bushes
Definition plural of blush plural of bush

Where the eye mixes blushes and bushes

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

7 ch
blushes
6 ch
bushes

Look-alike desk: blushes vs bushes

A purely visual mix-up. blushes (/ˈblʌʃɪz/) and bushes (/ˈbʊʃɪz/) 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 49747, 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/. bushes is at rank #13,291, tagged as anoun, pronounced /ˈbʊʃɪz/.

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 49747, this pair ranks #180,710 of 530,003 scored English confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.

Orthographic DNA of blushes vs bushes

Shared letters: behsu. Private to "blushes": l. Private to "bushes": -.

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

Known mistypes of this pair

  • blushes ← bblushes · bllushes · blsuhes · bluhses · blusehs · blushess · blushhes · blushse
  • bushes ← bbushes · bsuhes · buhses · busehs · bushess · bushhes · bushse · busshes

Frequently Asked Questions

Is swapping "blushes" for "bushes" ever safe?
No. They are said differently (/ˈblʌʃɪz/ versus /ˈbʊʃɪz/) and carry different meanings; reading the sentence aloud is usually enough to catch the wrong one.
Frequency check: "blushes" vs "bushes" - which ranks higher?
"bushes" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #13,291 in our English list, against #36,456 for "blushes". The two are close in frequency, so neither is a safe default; check the meaning rather than guessing.

What to do next

Pronunciation already separates them, if the page still looks alike, the dictionary links below settle it.

  • Full dictionary entry for "blushes" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "bushes" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #180,710 of 530,003 scored English confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "blushes" and "bushes" 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 #180,710 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