Which to use
“bruise” is a verb and “brutish” is an adjective - they look or sound alike but fill different roles in a sentence.
- #22,909
- “bruise” frequency rank
- #48,636
- “brutish” frequency rank
- 71545
- confusion score
Side-by-Side Comparison
| Feature | bruise | brutish |
|---|---|---|
| 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. | Of, or in the manner of a brute |
Where the eye mixes bruise and brutish
Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 5 letters in sequence. bruise runs 6 letters (CCVVCV) against brutish's 7 (CCVCVCC) - the length gap alone is often enough to separate them once you know to check it.
Visual trap between bruise and brutish
These two trip readers on the page rather than in the ear: bruise is /bɹuːz/ while brutish is /ˈbɹuːt.ɪʃ/. Spoken aloud the problem disappears. In writing it persists, because they differ by 1 letter(s) in length, and the parts of speech differ too (verb vs adjective), which is usually the fastest check. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 71545, 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/. brutish is at rank #48,636, tagged as anadj, pronounced /ˈbɹuːt.ɪʃ/.
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 71545, this pair ranks #46,301 of 530,003 scored English confusable pairs - among the most confusable pairs.
Orthographic DNA of bruise vs brutish
Shared letters: birsu. Private to "bruise": e. Private to "brutish": ht.
"bruise" · 6 letters · shape CCVVCV · "brutish" · 7 letters · shape CCVCVCC
Known mistypes of this pair
Frequently Asked Questions
Is swapping "bruise" for "brutish" ever safe?
Frequency check: "bruise" vs "brutish" - which ranks higher?
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 "bruise" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
- Full dictionary entry for "brutish" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
- This pair ranks #46,301 of 530,003 scored English confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
- "bruise" and "brutish" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "brutes 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 #46,301 of 530,003 scored English pairs, corpus vintage 2026-09-03, not spelling advice.