Which to use
“hulk” and “husk” are a confusable English pair: similar on the page, but distinct in meaning, check the gloss before you choose.
- #10,864
- “hulk” frequency rank
- #35,345
- “husk” frequency rank
- 46209
- confusion score
Side-by-Side Comparison
| Feature | hulk | husk |
|---|---|---|
| Definition | A large ship used for transportation; (more generally) a large ship that is difficult to manoeuvre. | The dry, leafy or stringy exterior of certain vegetables or fruits, which must be removed before eating the meat inside. |
Where the eye mixes hulk and husk
Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 3 letters in sequence.
Visual trap between hulk and husk
A purely visual mix-up. hulk (/hʌlk/) and husk (/hʌsk/) 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 a single letter - l in “hulk” becomes s in “husk”. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 46209, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.
hulk is recorded at frequency rank #10,864, classified as anoun, pronounced /hʌlk/. husk is at rank #35,345, tagged as anoun, pronounced /hʌsk/.
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 46209, this pair ranks #213,945 of 530,003 scored English confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.
Orthographic DNA of hulk vs husk
Shared letters: hku. Private to "hulk": l. Private to "husk": s.
"hulk" · 4 letters · shape CVCC · "husk" · 4 letters · shape CVCC
Known mistypes of this pair
Frequently Asked Questions
Is swapping "hulk" for "husk" ever safe?
Frequency check: "hulk" vs "husk" - which ranks higher?
What to do next
Eye-level mix-up between "hulk" and "husk" is sorted above. Next: full entries or other pairs that share a letter shape.
- Full dictionary entry for "hulk" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
- Full dictionary entry for "husk" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
- This pair ranks #213,945 of 530,003 scored English confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
- "hulk" and "husk" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "Hak vs husk". 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 #213,945 of 530,003 scored English pairs, corpus vintage 2026-09-03, not spelling advice.