bruntvsbundConfusable pair

Which to use

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

#24,687
“brunt” frequency rank
#39,229
“bund” frequency rank
63916
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature brunt bund
Definition The full adverse effects; the chief consequences or negative results of a thing or event. A league or confederacy; especially the confederation of German states.

Where the eye mixes brunt and bund

Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 3 letters in sequence. brunt runs 5 letters (CCVCC) against bund's 4 (CVCC) - the length gap alone is often enough to separate them once you know to check it.

5 ch
brunt
4 ch
bund

Why the eye confuses brunt with bund

A purely visual mix-up. brunt (/bɹʌnt/) and bund (/bʊnd/) 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 letter(s) in length. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 63916, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

brunt is recorded at frequency rank #24,687, classified as anoun, pronounced /bɹʌnt/. bund is at rank #39,229, tagged as anoun, pronounced /bʊnd/.

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 63916, this pair ranks #80,407 of 530,003 scored English confusable pairs - among the most confusable pairs.

Orthographic DNA of brunt vs bund

Shared letters: bnu. Private to "brunt": rt. Private to "bund": d.

"brunt" · 5 letters · shape CCVCC  ·  "bund" · 4 letters · shape CVCC

Known mistypes of this pair

  • brunt ← bbrunt · brnut · brrunt · brunnt · bruntt · brutn · rbunt
  • bund ← bbund · bnud · budn · bundd · bunnd · ubnd

Frequently Asked Questions

Is swapping "brunt" for "bund" ever safe?
No. They are said differently (/bɹʌnt/ versus /bʊnd/) and carry different meanings; reading the sentence aloud is usually enough to catch the wrong one.
Frequency check: "brunt" vs "bund" - which ranks higher?
"brunt" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #24,687 in our English list, against #39,229 for "bund". The two are close in frequency, so neither is a safe default; check the meaning rather than guessing.

What to do next

Visual near-miss handled. Browse the word pages or a neighbour when the next look-alike shows up.

  • Full dictionary entry for "brunt" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "bund" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #80,407 of 530,003 scored English confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "brunt" and "bund" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "bendy vs bund". 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 #80,407 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