Which to use
“run” is a verb and “Rus” is a name - they look or sound alike but fill different roles in a sentence.
- #309
- “run” frequency rank
- #26,234
- “Rus” frequency rank
- 26543
- confusion score
Side-by-Side Comparison
| Feature | run | Rus |
|---|---|---|
| Definition | To move swiftly. | 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 run and Rus
Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 2 letters in sequence.
Look-alike desk: run vs Rus
These two trip readers on the page rather than in the ear: run is /ɹʌn/ while Rus is /ɹuːs/. Spoken aloud the problem disappears. In writing it persists, because they differ by a single letter - n in “run” becomes s in “Rus”, and the parts of speech differ too (verb vs name), which is usually the fastest check. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 26543, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.
run is recorded at frequency rank #309, classified as averb, pronounced /ɹʌn/. 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 26543, this pair ranks #385,913 of 530,003 scored English confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.
Orthographic DNA of run vs Rus
Shared letters: ru. Private to "run": n. Private to "Rus": s.
"run" · 3 letters · shape CVC · "Rus" · 3 letters · shape CVC
Frequently Asked Questions
Is swapping "run" for "Rus" ever safe?
In ordinary English text, does "run" or "Rus" show up more?
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 "run" 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 #385,913 of 530,003 scored English confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
- "run" and "Rus" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "Rua vs Rus". Nearby pair
Confusion rank #385,913 of 530,003 scored English pairs, corpus vintage 2026-09-03, not spelling advice.