blushesvsbussesConfusable pair

Which to use

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

#36,456
“blushes” frequency rank
#37,358
“busses” frequency rank
73814
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature blushes busses
Definition plural of blush plural of bus

Letter map: blushes vs busses

Shared letters muted; letters that set blushes and busses apart highlighted. Shared run: 5.

7 ch
blushes
6 ch
busses

Pair insight - blushes / busses

blushes and busses are indexed as a confusable English pair. We have no recorded pronunciation or part of speech for both members, so the spelling overlap is what we can show you: they differ by 1 letter(s) in length. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 73814, 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/. busses is at rank #37,358, tagged as anoun.

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 73814, this pair ranks #38,332 of 530,003 scored English confusable pairs - among the most confusable pairs.

Orthographic DNA of blushes vs busses

Shared letters: besu. Private to "blushes": hl. Private to "busses": -.

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

Known mistypes of this pair

  • blushesbblushes · bllushes · blsuhes · bluhses · blusehs · blushess · blushhes · blushse
  • bussesbbusses · bsuses · buses · busess · bussess · bussse · ubsses

Frequently Asked Questions

Is swapping "blushes" for "busses" ever safe?
No. They differ by 1 letter(s) in length, but the dictionary glosses above give them different meanings, so swapping one for the other changes what the sentence says.
Frequency check: "blushes" vs "busses" - which ranks higher?
"blushes" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #36,456 in our English list, against #37,358 for "busses". The two are close in frequency, so neither is a safe default; check the meaning rather than guessing.

Useful next steps

You've compared "blushes" and "busses". Here's where to go from here.

  • Full dictionary entry for "blushes" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "busses" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #38,332 of 530,003 scored English confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "blushes" and "busses" 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 #38,332 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