Which to use
“flue” and “flush” are a confusable English pair: similar on the page, but distinct in meaning, check the gloss before you choose.
- #38,401
- “flue” frequency rank
- #9,610
- “flush” frequency rank
- 48011
- confusion score
Side-by-Side Comparison
| Feature | flue | flush |
|---|---|---|
| Definition | A pipe or duct that carries gaseous combustion products away from the point of combustion (such as a furnace). | A group of birds that have suddenly started up from undergrowth, trees, etc. |
Where the eye mixes flue and flush
Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 3 letters in sequence.
Look-alike desk: flue vs flush
A purely visual mix-up. flue (/fluː/) and flush (/ˈflʌʃ/) 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 48011, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.
flue is recorded at frequency rank #38,401, classified as anoun, pronounced /fluː/. flush is at rank #9,610, tagged as anoun, pronounced /ˈflʌʃ/.
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 48011, this pair ranks #197,177 of 530,003 scored English confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.
Orthographic DNA of flue vs flush
Shared letters: flu. Private to "flue": e. Private to "flush": hs.
"flue" · 4 letters · shape CCVV · "flush" · 5 letters · shape CCVCC
Known mistypes of this pair
Frequently Asked Questions
Do "flue" and "flush" mean the same thing in a sentence?
Frequency check: "flue" vs "flush" - which ranks higher?
Useful next steps
Eye-level mix-up between "flue" and "flush" is sorted above. Next: full entries or other pairs that share a letter shape.
- Full dictionary entry for "flue" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
- Full dictionary entry for "flush" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
- This pair ranks #197,177 of 530,003 scored English confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
- "flue" and "flush" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "flue vs fou". 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 #197,177 of 530,003 scored English pairs, corpus vintage 2026-09-03, not spelling advice.