guestsvsgustsConfusable pair

Which to use

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

#3,495
“guests” frequency rank
#23,852
“gusts” frequency rank
27347
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature guests gusts
Definition plural of guest plural of gust

Where the eye mixes guests and gusts

Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 5 letters in sequence.

6 ch
guests
5 ch
gusts

Look-alike desk: guests vs gusts

A purely visual mix-up. guests (/ɡɛsts/) and gusts (/ɡʌsts/) 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 27347, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

guests is recorded at frequency rank #3,495, classified as anoun, pronounced /ɡɛsts/. gusts is at rank #23,852, tagged as anoun, pronounced /ɡʌsts/.

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 27347, this pair ranks #379,646 of 530,003 scored English confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.

Orthographic DNA of guests vs gusts

Shared letters: gstu. Private to "guests": e. Private to "gusts": -.

"guests" · 6 letters · shape CVVCCC  ·  "gusts" · 5 letters · shape CVCCC

Known mistypes of this pair

  • guestsgeusts · gguests · guessts · guestss · guestts · guetss · gusets · ugests
  • gustsggusts · gsuts · gusst · gussts · gustss · gustts · ugsts

Frequently Asked Questions

Is swapping "guests" for "gusts" ever safe?
No. They are said differently (/ɡɛsts/ versus /ɡʌsts/) and carry different meanings; reading the sentence aloud is usually enough to catch the wrong one.
Which is more common, "guests" or "gusts"?
"guests" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #3,495 in our English list, against #23,852 for "gusts". 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 "guests" and "gusts" is sorted above. Next: full entries or other pairs that share a letter shape.

  • Full dictionary entry for "guests" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "gusts" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #379,646 of 530,003 scored English confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "guests" and "gusts" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "gusts vs gusty". 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 #379,646 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