Which to use
“bur” and “buys” are a confusable English pair: similar on the page, but distinct in meaning, check the gloss before you choose.
- #39,230
- “bur” frequency rank
- #7,892
- “buys” frequency rank
- 47122
- confusion score
Side-by-Side Comparison
| Feature | bur | buys |
|---|---|---|
| Definition | A rough, prickly husk around the seeds or fruit of some plants. | plural of buy |
Where the eye mixes bur and buys
Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 2 letters in sequence.
Look-alike desk: bur vs buys
A purely visual mix-up. bur (/bɝ/) and buys (/baɪz/) 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 47122, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.
bur is recorded at frequency rank #39,230, classified as anoun, pronounced /bɝ/. buys is at rank #7,892, tagged as anoun, pronounced /baɪz/.
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 47122, this pair ranks #205,370 of 530,003 scored English confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.
Orthographic DNA of bur vs buys
Shared letters: bu. Private to "bur": r. Private to "buys": sy.
"bur" · 3 letters · shape CVC · "buys" · 4 letters · shape CVVC
Known mistypes of this pair
- buys ← bbuys · buyss · buyys · byus · ubys
Frequently Asked Questions
Is swapping "bur" for "buys" ever safe?
Which is more common, "bur" or "buys"?
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 "bur" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
- Full dictionary entry for "buys" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
- This pair ranks #205,370 of 530,003 scored English confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
- "bur" and "buys" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "BFS vs bur". 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 #205,370 of 530,003 scored English pairs, corpus vintage 2026-09-03, not spelling advice.