Which to use
“than” is a conjunction and “thus” is an adverb - they look or sound alike but fill different roles in a sentence.
- #77
- “than” frequency rank
- #1,323
- “thus” frequency rank
- 1400
- confusion score
Side-by-Side Comparison
| Feature | than | thus |
|---|---|---|
| Definition | Used in comparisons, to introduce the basis of comparison. | In this way or manner. |
Where the eye mixes than and thus
Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 2 letters in sequence.
Spelling & Dictionary Insight
These two trip readers on the page rather than in the ear: than is /ðæn/ while thus is /ˈðʌs/. Spoken aloud the problem disappears. In writing it persists, because they share most of their letters but differ in 2 positions, and the parts of speech differ too (conjunction vs adverb), which is usually the fastest check. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 1400, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.
than is recorded at frequency rank #77, classified as aconj, pronounced /ðæn/. thus is at rank #1,323, tagged as anadv, pronounced /ˈðʌs/.
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 1400, this pair ranks #527,514 of 530,003 scored English confusable pairs - a relatively easy-to-tell-apart pair.
Orthographic DNA of than vs thus
Shared letters: ht. Private to "than": an. Private to "thus": su.
"than" · 4 letters · shape CCVC · "thus" · 4 letters · shape CCVC