budgevsbuggedWhat's the difference?

Which to use

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

#21,462
“budge” frequency rank
#25,691
“bugged” frequency rank
47153
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature budge bugged
Definition To move; to be shifted from a fixed position. simple past and past participle of bug

Where the eye mixes budge and bugged

Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 4 letters in sequence.

5 ch
budge
6 ch
bugged

Look-alike desk: budge vs bugged

A purely visual mix-up. budge (/bʌd͡ʒ/) and bugged (/bʌɡd/) 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 47153, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

budge is recorded at frequency rank #21,462, classified as averb, pronounced /bʌd͡ʒ/. bugged is at rank #25,691, tagged as averb, pronounced /bʌɡd/.

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 47153, this pair ranks #205,099 of 530,003 scored English confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.

Orthographic DNA of budge vs bugged

Shared letters: bdegu. Private to "budge": -. Private to "bugged": -.

"budge" · 5 letters · shape CVCCV  ·  "bugged" · 6 letters · shape CVCCVC

Known mistypes of this pair

  • budgebbudge · bduge · buddge · budeg · budgge · bugde · ubdge
  • buggedbbugged · bguged · buged · bugegd · buggde · buggedd · ubgged

Frequently Asked Questions

Is swapping "budge" for "bugged" ever safe?
No. They are said differently (/bʌd͡ʒ/ versus /bʌɡd/) and carry different meanings; reading the sentence aloud is usually enough to catch the wrong one.
In ordinary English text, does "budge" or "bugged" show up more?
"budge" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #21,462 in our English list, against #25,691 for "bugged". The two are close in frequency, so neither is a safe default; check the meaning rather than guessing.

What to do next

Eye-level mix-up between "budge" and "bugged" is sorted above. Next: full entries or other pairs that share a letter shape.

  • Full dictionary entry for "budge" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "bugged" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #205,099 of 530,003 scored English confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "budge" and "bugged" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "bugged vs butted". 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 #205,099 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