Which to use
“pursued” and “pushed” are a confusable English pair: similar on the page, but distinct in meaning, check the gloss before you choose.
- #8,474
- “pursued” frequency rank
- #3,447
- “pushed” frequency rank
- 11921
- confusion score
Side-by-Side Comparison
| Feature | pursued | pushed |
|---|---|---|
| Definition | simple past and past participle of pursue | simple past and past participle of push |
Where the eye mixes pursued and pushed
Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 5 letters in sequence. pursued runs 7 letters (CVCCVVC) against pushed's 6 (CVCCVC) - the length gap alone is often enough to separate them once you know to check it.
Why the eye confuses pursued with pushed
A purely visual mix-up. pursued (/pəˈsjuːd/) and pushed (/pʊʃt/) 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 11921, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.
pursued is recorded at frequency rank #8,474, classified as averb, pronounced /pəˈsjuːd/. pushed is at rank #3,447, tagged as averb, pronounced /pʊʃt/.
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 11921, this pair ranks #484,392 of 530,003 scored English confusable pairs - a relatively easy-to-tell-apart pair.
Orthographic DNA of pursued vs pushed
Shared letters: depsu. Private to "pursued": r. Private to "pushed": h.
"pursued" · 7 letters · shape CVCCVVC · "pushed" · 6 letters · shape CVCCVC
Known mistypes of this pair
Frequently Asked Questions
Can "pursued" and "pushed" be used interchangeably?
Frequency check: "pursued" vs "pushed" - which ranks higher?
Useful next steps
Visual near-miss handled. Browse the word pages or a neighbour when the next look-alike shows up.
- Full dictionary entry for "pursued" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
- Full dictionary entry for "pushed" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
- This pair ranks #484,392 of 530,003 scored English confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
- "pursued" and "pushed" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "pulsed vs pursued". 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 #484,392 of 530,003 scored English pairs, corpus vintage 2026-09-03, not spelling advice.