Which to use
“r” is a character and “Rus” is a name - they look or sound alike but fill different roles in a sentence.
- #449
- “r” frequency rank
- #26,234
- “Rus” frequency rank
- 26683
- confusion score
Side-by-Side Comparison
| Feature | r | Rus |
|---|---|---|
| Definition | The eighteenth letter of the English alphabet, called ar and written in the Latin script. | A people made up of Scandinavian warrior merchants who travelled Eastern European river-roads from the eighth century, and whose settlements around Novgorod, Kiev/Kyiv and the Volga and Dnieper/Dnipro gave rise to the Rus' principalities. |
Where the eye mixes r and Rus
Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 1 letter in sequence.
Visual trap between r and Rus
These two trip readers on the page rather than in the ear: r is /ɑː(ɹ)/ while Rus is /ɹuːs/. Spoken aloud the problem disappears. In writing it persists, because they differ by 2 extra letter(s) - “r” sits inside “Rus”, and the parts of speech differ too (character vs name), which is usually the fastest check. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 26683, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.
r is recorded at frequency rank #449, classified as acharacter, pronounced /ɑː(ɹ)/. Rus is at rank #26,234, tagged as aname, pronounced /ɹuːs/.
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 26683, this pair ranks #384,867 of 530,003 scored English confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.
Orthographic DNA of r vs Rus
Shared letters: r. Private to "r": -. Private to "Rus": su.
"r" · 1 letters · shape C · "Rus" · 3 letters · shape CVC
Frequently Asked Questions
Is swapping "r" for "Rus" ever safe?
In ordinary English text, does "r" or "Rus" show up more?
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 "r" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
- Full dictionary entry for "Rus" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
- This pair ranks #384,867 of 530,003 scored English confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
- "r" and "Rus" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "Rua vs Rus". Nearby pair
Confusion rank #384,867 of 530,003 scored English pairs, corpus vintage 2026-09-03, not spelling advice.