Which to use
“hush” is a verb and “husks” is a noun - they look or sound alike but fill different roles in a sentence.
- #15,629
- “hush” frequency rank
- #46,530
- “husks” frequency rank
- 62159
- confusion score
Side-by-Side Comparison
| Feature | hush | husks |
|---|---|---|
| Definition | To become quiet. | plural of husk |
Where the eye mixes hush and husks
Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 3 letters in sequence. hush runs 4 letters (CVCC) against husks's 5 (CVCCC) - the length gap alone is often enough to separate them once you know to check it.
Visual trap between hush and husks
These two trip readers on the page rather than in the ear: hush is /hʌʃ/ while husks is /hʌsks/. Spoken aloud the problem disappears. In writing it persists, because they differ by 1 letter(s) in length, and the parts of speech differ too (verb vs noun), which is usually the fastest check. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 62159, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.
hush is recorded at frequency rank #15,629, classified as averb, pronounced /hʌʃ/. 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 62159, this pair ranks #90,051 of 530,003 scored English confusable pairs - among the most confusable pairs.
Orthographic DNA of hush vs husks
Shared letters: hsu. Private to "hush": -. Private to "husks": k.
"hush" · 4 letters · shape CVCC · "husks" · 5 letters · shape CVCCC
Known mistypes of this pair
Frequently Asked Questions
Do "hush" and "husks" mean the same thing in a sentence?
In ordinary English text, does "hush" or "husks" show up more?
After this comparison
Eye-level mix-up between "hush" and "husks" is sorted above. Next: full entries or other pairs that share a letter shape.
- Full dictionary entry for "hush" 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 #90,051 of 530,003 scored English confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
- "hush" 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
Confusion rank #90,051 of 530,003 scored English pairs, corpus vintage 2026-09-03, not spelling advice.