Which to use
“gust” is a noun and “gusty” is an adjective - they look or sound alike but fill different roles in a sentence.
- #25,398
- “gust” frequency rank
- #47,664
- “gusty” frequency rank
- 73062
- confusion score
Side-by-Side Comparison
| Feature | gust | gusty |
|---|---|---|
| Definition | A strong, abrupt rush of wind. | Of wind: blowing in gusts; blustery; tempestuous. |
Where the eye mixes gust and gusty
Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 4 letters in sequence. gust runs 4 letters (CVCC) against gusty's 5 (CVCCV) - the length gap alone is often enough to separate them once you know to check it.
Visual trap between gust and gusty
These two trip readers on the page rather than in the ear: gust is /ɡʌst/ while gusty is /ˈɡʌs.ti/. Spoken aloud the problem disappears. In writing it persists, because they differ by 1 extra letter(s) - “gust” sits inside “gusty”, and the parts of speech differ too (noun vs adjective), which is usually the fastest check. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 73062, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.
gust is recorded at frequency rank #25,398, classified as anoun, pronounced /ɡʌst/. gusty is at rank #47,664, tagged as anadj, pronounced /ˈɡʌs.ti/.
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 73062, this pair ranks #40,858 of 530,003 scored English confusable pairs - among the most confusable pairs.
Orthographic DNA of gust vs gusty
Shared letters: gstu. Private to "gust": -. Private to "gusty": y.
"gust" · 4 letters · shape CVCC · "gusty" · 5 letters · shape CVCCV
Known mistypes of this pair
Frequently Asked Questions
Do "gust" and "gusty" mean the same thing in a sentence?
In ordinary English text, does "gust" or "gusty" show up more?
What to do next
Eye-level mix-up between "gust" and "gusty" is sorted above. Next: full entries or other pairs that share a letter shape.
- Full dictionary entry for "gust" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
- Full dictionary entry for "gusty" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
- This pair ranks #40,858 of 530,003 scored English confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
- "gust" and "gusty" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "gusty vs gutsy". 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 #40,858 of 530,003 scored English pairs, corpus vintage 2026-09-03, not spelling advice.