Which to use
“through” and “thru” are a confusable English pair: similar on the page, but distinct in meaning, check the gloss before you choose.
- #139
- “through” frequency rank
- #9,266
- “thru” frequency rank
- 9405
- confusion score
Side-by-Side Comparison
| Feature | through | thru |
|---|---|---|
| Definition | From one side or end of (something) to the other. | Nonstandard spelling of through. |
Same sound, different letters: through vs thru
Muted letters are shared; highlighted letters are the only spelling cue when pronunciation matches. Shared run: 4 letters.
Spelling & Dictionary Insight
This is the hard kind. through and thru are pronounced identically (/θɹuː/) and both work as apreposition. Neither the ear nor the grammar will rescue you; only the meaning does, so the glosses below are the whole decision. They differ by 3 letter(s) in length. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 9405, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.
through is recorded at frequency rank #139, classified as aprep, pronounced /θɹuː/. thru is at rank #9,266, tagged as aprep, pronounced /θɹuː/.
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 9405, this pair ranks #497,552 of 530,003 scored English confusable pairs - a relatively easy-to-tell-apart pair.
Orthographic DNA of through vs thru
Shared letters: hrtu. Private to "through": go. Private to "thru": -.
"through" · 7 letters · shape CCCVVCC · "thru" · 4 letters · shape CCCV
Known mistypes of this pair
Frequently Asked Questions
Can "through" and "thru" be used interchangeably?
Which is more common, "through" or "thru"?
What to do next
You've compared "through" and "thru". Here's where to go from here.
- Full dictionary entry for "through" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
- Full dictionary entry for "thru" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
- This pair ranks #497,552 of 530,003 scored English confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
- "through" and "thru" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "thru vs torus". 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
PlainSpell is a reference corpus, not spelling advice. Verify unusual forms in context.