Which to use
“bough” and “burgh” are a confusable English pair: similar on the page, but distinct in meaning, check the gloss before you choose.
- #40,156
- “bough” frequency rank
- #34,413
- “burgh” frequency rank
- 74569
- confusion score
Side-by-Side Comparison
| Feature | bough | burgh |
|---|---|---|
| Definition | A tree-branch, usually a primary one directly attached to the trunk. | a small mound, often used in reference to tumuli (mostly restricted to place names). |
Where the eye mixes bough and burgh
Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 4 letters in sequence.
Visual trap between bough and burgh
A purely visual mix-up. bough (/baʊ/) and burgh (/ˈbʌɹə/) 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 2 positions. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 74569, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.
bough is recorded at frequency rank #40,156, classified as anoun, pronounced /baʊ/. burgh is at rank #34,413, tagged as anoun, pronounced /ˈbʌɹə/.
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 74569, this pair ranks #35,947 of 530,003 scored English confusable pairs - among the most confusable pairs.
Orthographic DNA of bough vs burgh
Shared letters: bghu. Private to "bough": o. Private to "burgh": r.
"bough" · 5 letters · shape CVVCC · "burgh" · 5 letters · shape CVCCC
Known mistypes of this pair
Frequently Asked Questions
Is swapping "bough" for "burgh" ever safe?
Which is more common, "bough" or "burgh"?
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 "bough" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
- Full dictionary entry for "burgh" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
- This pair ranks #35,947 of 530,003 scored English confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
- "bough" and "burgh" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "burgh vs burqa". 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 #35,947 of 530,003 scored English pairs, corpus vintage 2026-09-03, not spelling advice.