Which to use
“cur” and “cusp” are a confusable English pair: similar on the page, but distinct in meaning, check the gloss before you choose.
- #31,941
- “cur” frequency rank
- #27,112
- “cusp” frequency rank
- 59053
- confusion score
Side-by-Side Comparison
| Feature | cur | cusp |
|---|---|---|
| Definition | A contemptible or inferior dog. | A sharp point or pointed end. |
Where the eye mixes cur and cusp
Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 2 letters in sequence.
Visual trap between cur and cusp
A purely visual mix-up. cur (/kɜː/) and cusp (/kʌsp/) 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 59053, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.
cur is recorded at frequency rank #31,941, classified as anoun, pronounced /kɜː/. cusp is at rank #27,112, tagged as anoun, pronounced /kʌsp/.
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 59053, this pair ranks #108,601 of 530,003 scored English confusable pairs - among the most confusable pairs.
Orthographic DNA of cur vs cusp
Shared letters: cu. Private to "cur": r. Private to "cusp": ps.
"cur" · 3 letters · shape CVC · "cusp" · 4 letters · shape CVCC
Known mistypes of this pair
- cusp ← ccusp · csup · cuspp · cussp · ucsp
Frequently Asked Questions
Do "cur" and "cusp" mean the same thing in a sentence?
Frequency check: "cur" vs "cusp" - which ranks higher?
After this comparison
Eye-level mix-up between "cur" and "cusp" is sorted above. Next: full entries or other pairs that share a letter shape.
- Full dictionary entry for "cur" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
- Full dictionary entry for "cusp" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
- This pair ranks #108,601 of 530,003 scored English confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
- "cur" and "cusp" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "CGT vs cur". 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 #108,601 of 530,003 scored English pairs, corpus vintage 2026-09-03, not spelling advice.