Which to use
“fished” and “fused” are a confusable English pair: similar on the page, but distinct in meaning, check the gloss before you choose.
- #26,089
- “fished” frequency rank
- #17,147
- “fused” frequency rank
- 43236
- confusion score
Side-by-Side Comparison
| Feature | fished | fused |
|---|---|---|
| Definition | simple past and past participle of fish | simple past and past participle of fuse |
Where the eye mixes fished and fused
Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 4 letters in sequence. fished runs 6 letters (CVCCVC) against fused's 5 (CVCVC) - the length gap alone is often enough to separate them once you know to check it.
Visual trap between fished and fused
A purely visual mix-up. fished (/fɪʃt/) and fused (/fjuːzd/) 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 43236, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.
fished is recorded at frequency rank #26,089, classified as averb, pronounced /fɪʃt/. fused is at rank #17,147, tagged as averb, pronounced /fjuːzd/.
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 43236, this pair ranks #241,922 of 530,003 scored English confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.
Orthographic DNA of fished vs fused
Shared letters: defs. Private to "fished": hi. Private to "fused": u.
"fished" · 6 letters · shape CVCCVC · "fused" · 5 letters · shape CVCVC
Known mistypes of this pair
Frequently Asked Questions
Do "fished" and "fused" mean the same thing in a sentence?
Which is more common, "fished" or "fused"?
Useful next steps
Visual near-miss handled. Browse the word pages or a neighbour when the next look-alike shows up.
- Full dictionary entry for "fished" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
- Full dictionary entry for "fused" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
- This pair ranks #241,922 of 530,003 scored English confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
- "fished" and "fused" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "fished vs fleshed". 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 #241,922 of 530,003 scored English pairs, corpus vintage 2026-09-03, not spelling advice.