Which to use
“husk” and “husks” are a confusable English pair: similar on the page, but distinct in meaning, check the gloss before you choose.
- #35,345
- “husk” frequency rank
- #46,530
- “husks” frequency rank
- 81875
- confusion score
Side-by-Side Comparison
| Feature | husk | husks |
|---|---|---|
| Definition | The dry, leafy or stringy exterior of certain vegetables or fruits, which must be removed before eating the meat inside. | plural of husk |
Where the eye mixes husk and husks
Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 4 letters in sequence. husk 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.
Why the eye confuses husk with husks
A purely visual mix-up. husk (/hʌsk/) 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 extra letter(s) - “husk” sits inside “husks”. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 81875, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.
husk is recorded at frequency rank #35,345, classified as anoun, pronounced /hʌsk/. 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 81875, this pair ranks #16,801 of 530,003 scored English confusable pairs - among the most confusable pairs.
Orthographic DNA of husk vs husks
Shared letters: hksu. Private to "husk": -. Private to "husks": -.
"husk" · 4 letters · shape CVCC · "husks" · 5 letters · shape CVCCC
Known mistypes of this pair
Frequently Asked Questions
Do "husk" and "husks" mean the same thing in a sentence?
Frequency check: "husk" vs "husks" - which ranks higher?
After this comparison
Visual near-miss handled. Browse the word pages or a neighbour when the next look-alike shows up.
- Full dictionary entry for "husk" 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 #16,801 of 530,003 scored English confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
- "husk" 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 #16,801 of 530,003 scored English pairs, corpus vintage 2026-09-03, not spelling advice.