Which to use
“ghost” and “grout” are a confusable English pair: similar on the page, but distinct in meaning, check the gloss before you choose.
- #3,494
- “ghost” frequency rank
- #35,742
- “grout” frequency rank
- 39236
- confusion score
Side-by-Side Comparison
| Feature | ghost | grout |
|---|---|---|
| Definition | A disembodied soul; a soul or spirit of a deceased person; a spirit appearing after death. | A thin mortar used to fill the gaps between tiles and cavities in masonry. |
Where the eye mixes ghost and grout
Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 3 letters in sequence.
Look-alike desk: ghost vs grout
A purely visual mix-up. ghost (/ɡəʊst/) and grout (/ɡɹaʊt/) 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 39236, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.
ghost is recorded at frequency rank #3,494, classified as anoun, pronounced /ɡəʊst/. grout is at rank #35,742, tagged as anoun, pronounced /ɡɹaʊt/.
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 39236, this pair ranks #278,536 of 530,003 scored English confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.
Orthographic DNA of ghost vs grout
Shared letters: got. Private to "ghost": hs. Private to "grout": ru.
"ghost" · 5 letters · shape CCVCC · "grout" · 5 letters · shape CCVVC
Known mistypes of this pair
Frequently Asked Questions
Do "ghost" and "grout" mean the same thing in a sentence?
Which is more common, "ghost" or "grout"?
After this comparison
Eye-level mix-up between "ghost" and "grout" is sorted above. Next: full entries or other pairs that share a letter shape.
- Full dictionary entry for "ghost" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
- Full dictionary entry for "grout" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
- This pair ranks #278,536 of 530,003 scored English confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
- "ghost" and "grout" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "gronk vs grout". 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 #278,536 of 530,003 scored English pairs, corpus vintage 2026-09-03, not spelling advice.