Which to use
“this” is a determiner and “thus” is an adverb - they look or sound alike but fill different roles in a sentence.
- #15
- “this” frequency rank
- #1,323
- “thus” frequency rank
- 1338
- confusion score
Side-by-Side Comparison
| Feature | this | thus |
|---|---|---|
| Definition | The (thing) here (used in indicating something or someone nearby). | In this way or manner. |
Where the eye mixes this and thus
Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 3 letters in sequence.
Spelling & Dictionary Insight
These two trip readers on the page rather than in the ear: this is /ðɪs/ while thus is /ˈðʌs/. Spoken aloud the problem disappears. In writing it persists, because they differ by a single letter - i in “this” becomes u in “thus”, and the parts of speech differ too (determiner vs adverb), which is usually the fastest check. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 1338, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.
this is recorded at frequency rank #15, classified as adet, pronounced /ðɪs/. 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 1338, this pair ranks #527,624 of 530,003 scored English confusable pairs - a relatively easy-to-tell-apart pair.
Orthographic DNA of this vs thus
Shared letters: hst. Private to "this": i. Private to "thus": u.
"this" · 4 letters · shape CCVC · "thus" · 4 letters · shape CCVC