Which to use
“fugue” and “fungus” are a confusable English pair: similar on the page, but distinct in meaning, check the gloss before you choose.
- #40,254
- “fugue” frequency rank
- #14,329
- “fungus” frequency rank
- 54583
- confusion score
Side-by-Side Comparison
| Feature | fugue | fungus |
|---|---|---|
| Definition | A contrapuntal piece of music wherein a particular melody is played in a number of voices, each voice introduced in turn by playing the melody. | Any member of the kingdom Fungi; a eukaryotic organism typically having chitin cell walls but no chlorophyll or plastids. Fungi may be unicellular or multicellular. |
Where the eye mixes fugue and fungus
Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 4 letters in sequence. fugue runs 5 letters (CVCVV) against fungus's 6 (CVCCVC) - the length gap alone is often enough to separate them once you know to check it.
Why the eye confuses fugue with fungus
A purely visual mix-up. fugue (/ˈfyɡ/) and fungus (/ˈfʌŋ.ɡəs/) 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 54583, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.
fugue is recorded at frequency rank #40,254, classified as anoun, pronounced /ˈfyɡ/. fungus is at rank #14,329, tagged as anoun, pronounced /ˈfʌŋ.ɡəs/.
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 54583, this pair ranks #139,962 of 530,003 scored English confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.
Orthographic DNA of fugue vs fungus
Shared letters: fgu. Private to "fugue": e. Private to "fungus": ns.
"fugue" · 5 letters · shape CVCVV · "fungus" · 6 letters · shape CVCCVC
Known mistypes of this pair
Frequently Asked Questions
Can "fugue" and "fungus" be used interchangeably?
Which is more common, "fugue" or "fungus"?
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 "fugue" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
- Full dictionary entry for "fungus" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
- This pair ranks #139,962 of 530,003 scored English confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
- "fugue" and "fungus" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "fugue vs fume". 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 #139,962 of 530,003 scored English pairs, corpus vintage 2026-09-03, not spelling advice.