flushesvsflutesWhat's the difference?

Which to use

“flushes” and “flutes” are a confusable English pair: similar on the page, but distinct in meaning, check the gloss before you choose.

#41,632
“flushes” frequency rank
#36,145
“flutes” frequency rank
77777
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature flushes flutes
Definition plural of flush plural of flute

Where the eye mixes flushes and flutes

Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 5 letters in sequence. flushes runs 7 letters (CCVCCVC) against flutes's 6 (CCVCVC) - the length gap alone is often enough to separate them once you know to check it.

7 ch
flushes
6 ch
flutes

Visual trap between flushes and flutes

A purely visual mix-up. flushes (/ˈflʌʃɪz/) and flutes (/fluːts/) 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 77777, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

flushes is recorded at frequency rank #41,632, classified as anoun, pronounced /ˈflʌʃɪz/. flutes is at rank #36,145, tagged as anoun, pronounced /fluːts/.

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 77777, this pair ranks #26,293 of 530,003 scored English confusable pairs - among the most confusable pairs.

Orthographic DNA of flushes vs flutes

Shared letters: eflsu. Private to "flushes": h. Private to "flutes": t.

"flushes" · 7 letters · shape CCVCCVC  ·  "flutes" · 6 letters · shape CCVCVC

Known mistypes of this pair

  • flushes ← fflushes · fllushes · flsuhes · fluhses · flusehs · flushess · flushhes · flushse
  • flutes ← fflutes · fllutes · fltues · fluets · flutess · flutse · fluttes · fultes

Frequently Asked Questions

Can "flushes" and "flutes" be used interchangeably?
No. They are said differently (/ˈflʌʃɪz/ versus /fluːts/) and carry different meanings; reading the sentence aloud is usually enough to catch the wrong one.
In ordinary English text, does "flushes" or "flutes" show up more?
"flutes" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #36,145 in our English list, against #41,632 for "flushes". The two are close in frequency, so neither is a safe default; check the meaning rather than guessing.

After this comparison

Eye-level mix-up between "flushes" and "flutes" is sorted above. Next: full entries or other pairs that share a letter shape.

  • Full dictionary entry for "flushes" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "flutes" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #26,293 of 530,003 scored English confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "flushes" and "flutes" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "fluted vs flutes". 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 #26,293 of 530,003 scored English pairs, corpus vintage 2026-09-03, not spelling advice.

Source: Wiktionary (via kaikki.org) Structured Wiktionary extract

Source: FrequencyWords open word-frequency list