hulkvshusksWhat's the difference?

Which to use

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

#10,864
“hulk” frequency rank
#46,530
“husks” frequency rank
57394
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature hulk husks
Definition A large ship used for transportation; (more generally) a large ship that is difficult to manoeuvre. plural of husk

Where the eye mixes hulk and husks

Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 3 letters in sequence.

4 ch
hulk
5 ch
husks

Spelling & Dictionary Insight

A purely visual mix-up. hulk (/hʌlk/) and husks (/hʌsks/) 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 57394, 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/. husks is at rank #46,530, tagged as anoun, pronounced /hʌsks/.

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 57394, this pair ranks #119,583 of 530,003 scored English confusable pairs - among the most confusable pairs.

Orthographic DNA of hulk vs husks

Shared letters: hku. Private to "hulk": l. Private to "husks": s.

"hulk" · 4 letters · shape CVCC  ·  "husks" · 5 letters · shape CVCCC

Known mistypes of this pair

  • hulkhhulk · hluk · hukl · hulkk · hullk · uhlk
  • huskshhusks · hsuks · hukss · huskks · huskss · hussks · uhsks

Frequently Asked Questions

Can "hulk" and "husks" be used interchangeably?
No. They are said differently (/hʌlk/ versus /hʌsks/) and carry different meanings; reading the sentence aloud is usually enough to catch the wrong one.
Which is more common, "hulk" or "husks"?
"hulk" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #10,864 in our English list, against #46,530 for "husks". The two are close in frequency, so neither is a safe default; check the meaning rather than guessing.

What to do next

You've compared "hulk" and "husks". Here's where to go from here.

  • Full dictionary entry for "hulk" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "husks" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #119,583 of 530,003 scored English confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "hulk" and "husks" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "humps vs husks". 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

PlainSpell is a reference corpus, not spelling advice. Verify unusual forms in context.

Source: Wiktionary (via kaikki.org) Structured Wiktionary extract

Source: FrequencyWords open word-frequency list