Which to use
“bruised” is a verb and “brushed” is an adjective - they look or sound alike but fill different roles in a sentence.
- #17,310
- “bruised” frequency rank
- #13,473
- “brushed” frequency rank
- 30783
- confusion score
Side-by-Side Comparison
| Feature | bruised | brushed |
|---|---|---|
| Definition | simple past and past participle of bruise | Roughened by rubbing with an abrasive brushes, especially as a finish. |
Where the eye mixes bruised and brushed
Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 6 letters in sequence. bruised (CCVVCVC) and brushed (CCVCCVC) run the same length but a different consonant-vowel pattern - the shape difference is usually the fastest tell.
Look-alike desk: bruised vs brushed
These two trip readers on the page rather than in the ear: bruised is /bɹuːzd/ while brushed is /ˈbɹʌʃt/. Spoken aloud the problem disappears. In writing it persists, because they share most of their letters but differ in 2 positions, and the parts of speech differ too (verb vs adjective), which is usually the fastest check. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 30783, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.
bruised is recorded at frequency rank #17,310, classified as averb, pronounced /bɹuːzd/. brushed is at rank #13,473, tagged as anadj, pronounced /ˈbɹʌʃt/.
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 30783, this pair ranks #351,601 of 530,003 scored English confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.
Orthographic DNA of bruised vs brushed
Shared letters: bdersu. Private to "bruised": i. Private to "brushed": h.
"bruised" · 7 letters · shape CCVVCVC · "brushed" · 7 letters · shape CCVCCVC
Known mistypes of this pair
Frequently Asked Questions
Is swapping "bruised" for "brushed" ever safe?
In ordinary English text, does "bruised" or "brushed" show up more?
Useful next steps
Eye-level mix-up between "bruised" and "brushed" is sorted above. Next: full entries or other pairs that share a letter shape.
- Full dictionary entry for "bruised" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
- Full dictionary entry for "brushed" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
- This pair ranks #351,601 of 530,003 scored English confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
- "bruised" and "brushed" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "bruised vs bruiser". 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 #351,601 of 530,003 scored English pairs, corpus vintage 2026-09-03, not spelling advice.