Which to use
“thru” is a preposition and “thrush” is a noun - they look or sound alike but fill different roles in a sentence.
- #9,266
- “thru” frequency rank
- #35,985
- “thrush” frequency rank
- 45251
- confusion score
Side-by-Side Comparison
| Feature | thru | thrush |
|---|---|---|
| Definition | Nonstandard spelling of through. | Any of numerous species of songbirds of the cosmopolitan family Turdidae, such as the song thrush, mistle thrush, bluebird, and American robin. |
Where the eye mixes thru and thrush
Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 4 letters in sequence.
Look-alike desk: thru vs thrush
These two trip readers on the page rather than in the ear: thru is /θɹuː/ while thrush is /θɹʌʃ/. Spoken aloud the problem disappears. In writing it persists, because they differ by 2 extra letter(s) - “thru” sits inside “thrush”, and the parts of speech differ too (preposition vs noun), which is usually the fastest check. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 45251, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.
thru is recorded at frequency rank #9,266, classified as aprep, pronounced /θɹuː/. thrush is at rank #35,985, tagged as anoun, pronounced /θɹʌʃ/.
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 45251, this pair ranks #222,975 of 530,003 scored English confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.
Orthographic DNA of thru vs thrush
Shared letters: hrtu. Private to "thru": -. Private to "thrush": s.
"thru" · 4 letters · shape CCCV · "thrush" · 6 letters · shape CCCVCC
Known mistypes of this pair
Frequently Asked Questions
Do "thru" and "thrush" mean the same thing in a sentence?
Frequency check: "thru" vs "thrush" - which ranks higher?
What to do next
Visual near-miss handled. Browse the word pages or a neighbour when the next look-alike shows up.
- Full dictionary entry for "thru" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
- Full dictionary entry for "thrush" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
- This pair ranks #222,975 of 530,003 scored English confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
- "thru" and "thrush" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "thrush 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
Confusion rank #222,975 of 530,003 scored English pairs, corpus vintage 2026-09-03, not spelling advice.