Which to use
“grope” is a verb and “grouse” is a noun - they look or sound alike but fill different roles in a sentence.
- #42,680
- “grope” frequency rank
- #24,178
- “grouse” frequency rank
- 66858
- confusion score
Side-by-Side Comparison
| Feature | grope | grouse |
|---|---|---|
| Definition | To feel with or use the hands; to handle. | Any of various game birds of the subfamily Tetraoninae which inhabit temperate and subarctic regions of the Northern Hemisphere; specifically, the red grouse (Lagopus lagopus scotica) native to heather moorland on the British Isles. |
Where the eye mixes grope and grouse
Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 4 letters in sequence. grope runs 5 letters (CCVCV) against grouse's 6 (CCVVCV) - the length gap alone is often enough to separate them once you know to check it.
Why the eye confuses grope with grouse
These two trip readers on the page rather than in the ear: grope is /ɡɹəʊp/ while grouse is /ɡɹaʊs/. Spoken aloud the problem disappears. In writing it persists, because they differ by 1 letter(s) in length, and the parts of speech differ too (verb vs noun), which is usually the fastest check. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 66858, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.
grope is recorded at frequency rank #42,680, classified as averb, pronounced /ɡɹəʊp/. grouse is at rank #24,178, tagged as anoun, pronounced /ɡɹaʊs/.
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 66858, this pair ranks #66,100 of 530,003 scored English confusable pairs - among the most confusable pairs.
Orthographic DNA of grope vs grouse
Shared letters: egor. Private to "grope": p. Private to "grouse": su.
"grope" · 5 letters · shape CCVCV · "grouse" · 6 letters · shape CCVVCV
Known mistypes of this pair
Frequently Asked Questions
Is swapping "grope" for "grouse" ever safe?
Which is more common, "grope" or "grouse"?
What to do next
Eye-level mix-up between "grope" and "grouse" is sorted above. Next: full entries or other pairs that share a letter shape.
- Full dictionary entry for "grope" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
- Full dictionary entry for "grouse" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
- This pair ranks #66,100 of 530,003 scored English confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
- "grope" and "grouse" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "gronk vs grope". 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 #66,100 of 530,003 scored English pairs, corpus vintage 2026-09-03, not spelling advice.