muddvsmushWhich spelling fits?

Which to use

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

#48,367
“mudd” frequency rank
#29,390
“mush” frequency rank
77757
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature mudd mush
Definition Obsolete spelling of mud. A somewhat liquid mess, often of food; a soft or semisolid substance.

Letter map: mudd vs mush

Shared letters muted; letters that set mudd and mush apart highlighted. Shared run: 2.

4 ch
mudd
4 ch
mush

Pair insight - mudd / mush

mudd and mush are indexed as a confusable English pair. We have no recorded pronunciation or part of speech for both members, so the spelling overlap is what we can show you: they share most of their letters but differ in 2 positions. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 77757, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

mudd is recorded at frequency rank #48,367, classified as anoun. mush is at rank #29,390, tagged as anoun, pronounced /mʌʃ/.

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 77757, this pair ranks #26,354 of 530,003 scored English confusable pairs - among the most confusable pairs.

Orthographic DNA of mudd vs mush

Shared letters: mu. Private to "mudd": d. Private to "mush": hs.

"mudd" · 4 letters · shape CVCC  ·  "mush" · 4 letters · shape CVCC

Known mistypes of this pair

  • muddmdud · mmudd · umdd
  • mushmmush · msuh · muhs · mushh · mussh · umsh

Frequently Asked Questions

Is swapping "mudd" for "mush" ever safe?
No. They share most of their letters but differ in 2 positions, but the dictionary glosses above give them different meanings, so swapping one for the other changes what the sentence says.
Frequency check: "mudd" vs "mush" - which ranks higher?
"mush" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #29,390 in our English list, against #48,367 for "mudd". The two are close in frequency, so neither is a safe default; check the meaning rather than guessing.

After this comparison

Pair "mudd" vs "mush" is on the table, pick a follow-up below.

  • Full dictionary entry for "mudd" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "mush" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #26,354 of 530,003 scored English confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "mudd" and "mush" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "muda vs mudd". 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 #26,354 of 530,003 scored English pairs, corpus vintage 2026-09-03, not spelling advice.

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

Source: FrequencyWords open word-frequency list