Which to use
“bruise” and “bruised” are a confusable English pair: similar on the page, but distinct in meaning, check the gloss before you choose.
- #22,909
- “bruise” frequency rank
- #17,310
- “bruised” frequency rank
- 40219
- confusion score
Side-by-Side Comparison
| Feature | bruise | bruised |
|---|---|---|
| Definition | To strike (a person), originally with something flat or heavy, but now specifically in such a way as to discolour the skin without breaking it; to contuse. | simple past and past participle of bruise |
Where the eye mixes bruise and bruised
Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 6 letters in sequence. bruise runs 6 letters (CCVVCV) against bruised's 7 (CCVVCVC) - the length gap alone is often enough to separate them once you know to check it.
Why the eye confuses bruise with bruised
A purely visual mix-up. bruise (/bɹuːz/) and bruised (/bɹuːzd/) 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 extra letter(s) - “bruise” sits inside “bruised”. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 40219, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.
bruise is recorded at frequency rank #22,909, classified as averb, pronounced /bɹuːz/. bruised is at rank #17,310, tagged as averb, pronounced /bɹuːzd/.
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 40219, this pair ranks #269,547 of 530,003 scored English confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.
Orthographic DNA of bruise vs bruised
Shared letters: beirsu. Private to "bruise": -. Private to "bruised": d.
"bruise" · 6 letters · shape CCVVCV · "bruised" · 7 letters · shape CCVVCVC
Known mistypes of this pair
Frequently Asked Questions
Is swapping "bruise" for "bruised" ever safe?
In ordinary English text, does "bruise" or "bruised" show up more?
Useful next steps
Eye-level mix-up between "bruise" and "bruised" is sorted above. Next: full entries or other pairs that share a letter shape.
- Full dictionary entry for "bruise" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
- Full dictionary entry for "bruised" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
- This pair ranks #269,547 of 530,003 scored English confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
- "bruise" and "bruised" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "bruise vs brutish". 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 #269,547 of 530,003 scored English pairs, corpus vintage 2026-09-03, not spelling advice.