hurryvshuskyWhat's the difference?

Quick tell: hurry is a noun, husky is an adjective, so they fill different roles in a sentence.

Which to use

“hurry” is a noun and “husky” is an adjective - they look or sound alike but fill different roles in a sentence.

#5,690
“hurry” frequency rank
#19,860
“husky” frequency rank
25550
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature hurry husky
Definition A rushed action. Hoarse and rough-sounding; throaty.

Where the spellings diverge

Shared letters are muted; the letters that actually set hurry and husky apart are highlighted. They share 3 letters in sequence, which is exactly why the eye skips the difference.

5 ch
hurry
5 ch
husky

Spelling & Dictionary Insight

These two trip readers on the page rather than in the ear: hurry is /ˈhʌ.ɹi/ while husky is /ˈhʌs.ki/. Spoken aloud the problem disappears. In writing it persists, because they share most of their letters but differ in 2 positions, and the parts of speech differ too (noun vs adjective), which is usually the fastest check. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 25550, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

hurry is recorded at frequency rank #5,690, classified as anoun, pronounced /ˈhʌ.ɹi/. husky is at rank #19,860, tagged as anadj, pronounced /ˈhʌs.ki/.

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 25550, this pair ranks #393,463 of 530,003 scored English confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.

Orthographic DNA of hurry vs husky

Shared letters: huy. Private to "hurry": r. Private to "husky": ks.

"hurry" · 5 letters · shape CVCCV  ·  "husky" · 5 letters · shape CVCCV

Known mistypes of this pair

  • hurryhhurry · hrury · hurryy · hury · huryr · uhrry
  • huskyhhusky · hsuky · huksy · huskky · huskyy · hussky · husyk · uhsky

Frequency comparison

hurry#5,690
husky#19,860

Source: FrequencyWords open word-frequency list

Frequently Asked Questions

Can "hurry" and "husky" be used interchangeably?
No - they are not even the same part of speech. "hurry" is a noun and "husky" an adjective, so a sentence built for one is usually ungrammatical with the other.
Which is more common, "hurry" or "husky"?
"hurry" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #5,690 in our English list, against #19,860 for "husky". The two are close in frequency, so neither is a safe default; check the meaning rather than guessing.

Remembering hurry vs husky

The fastest way to pick the right one every time.

  • Check the role first: if you need a noun, it's “hurry”; for an adjective, it's “husky”.
  • See each word in full, definition, IPA, etymology and its other confusables. Full “hurry” entry
  • Browse more pairs most likely to be confused. Most confusable

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

Source: FrequencyWords open word-frequency list