Which to use
“defile” and “defuse” are a confusable English pair: similar on the page, but distinct in meaning, check the gloss before you choose.
- #44,153
- “defile” frequency rank
- #33,609
- “defuse” frequency rank
- 77762
- confusion score
Side-by-Side Comparison
| Feature | defile | defuse |
|---|---|---|
| Definition | To make (someone or something) physically dirty or unclean; to befoul, to soil. | To remove the fuse from (e.g. a bomb). |
Where the eye mixes defile and defuse
Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 4 letters in sequence. defile and defuse follow the identical consonant-vowel pattern (CVCVCV). Same shape at a glance is often the real trap, independent of shared letters.
Visual trap between defile and defuse
A purely visual mix-up. defile (/dɪˈfaɪl/) and defuse (/diːˈfjuːz/) are said differently, so reading them aloud is the quickest way to catch the wrong one. On the page they stay close: they share most of their letters but differ in 2 positions. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 77762, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.
defile is recorded at frequency rank #44,153, classified as averb, pronounced /dɪˈfaɪl/. defuse is at rank #33,609, tagged as averb, pronounced /diːˈfjuːz/.
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 77762, this pair ranks #26,339 of 530,003 scored English confusable pairs - among the most confusable pairs.
Orthographic DNA of defile vs defuse
Shared letters: def. Private to "defile": il. Private to "defuse": su.
"defile" · 6 letters · shape CVCVCV · "defuse" · 6 letters · shape CVCVCV
Known mistypes of this pair
Frequently Asked Questions
Can "defile" and "defuse" be used interchangeably?
Which is more common, "defile" or "defuse"?
Useful next steps
Eye-level mix-up between "defile" and "defuse" is sorted above. Next: full entries or other pairs that share a letter shape.
- Full dictionary entry for "defile" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
- Full dictionary entry for "defuse" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
- This pair ranks #26,339 of 530,003 scored English confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
- "defile" and "defuse" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "defile vs defiled". 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 #26,339 of 530,003 scored English pairs, corpus vintage 2026-09-03, not spelling advice.