thrushvsthrustsConfusable pair

Which to use

“thrush” and “thrusts” are a confusable English pair: similar on the page, but distinct in meaning, check the gloss before you choose.

#35,985
“thrush” frequency rank
#36,373
“thrusts” frequency rank
72358
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature thrush thrusts
Definition Any of numerous species of songbirds of the cosmopolitan family Turdidae, such as the song thrush, mistle thrush, bluebird, and American robin. plural of thrust

Where the eye mixes thrush and thrusts

Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 5 letters in sequence.

6 ch
thrush
7 ch
thrusts

Why the eye confuses thrush with thrusts

A purely visual mix-up. thrush (/θɹʌʃ/) and thrusts (/ˈθɹʌsts/) are said differently, so reading them aloud is the quickest way to catch the wrong one. On the page they stay close: they differ by 1 letter(s) in length. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 72358, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

thrush is recorded at frequency rank #35,985, classified as anoun, pronounced /θɹʌʃ/. thrusts is at rank #36,373, tagged as anoun, pronounced /ˈθɹʌsts/.

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 72358, this pair ranks #43,306 of 530,003 scored English confusable pairs - among the most confusable pairs.

Orthographic DNA of thrush vs thrusts

Shared letters: hrstu. Private to "thrush": -. Private to "thrusts": -.

"thrush" · 6 letters · shape CCCVCC  ·  "thrusts" · 7 letters · shape CCCVCCC

Known mistypes of this pair

  • thrushhtrush · thhrush · thrrush · thrsuh · thruhs · thrushh · thrussh · thursh
  • thrustshtrusts · thhrusts · thrrusts · thrsuts · thrussts · thrustss · thrustts · thrutss

Frequently Asked Questions

Do "thrush" and "thrusts" mean the same thing in a sentence?
No. They are said differently (/θɹʌʃ/ versus /ˈθɹʌsts/) and carry different meanings; reading the sentence aloud is usually enough to catch the wrong one.
Which is more common, "thrush" or "thrusts"?
"thrush" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #35,985 in our English list, against #36,373 for "thrusts". The two are close in frequency, so neither is a safe default; check the meaning rather than guessing.

After this comparison

Visual near-miss handled. Browse the word pages or a neighbour when the next look-alike shows up.

  • Full dictionary entry for "thrush" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "thrusts" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #43,306 of 530,003 scored English confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "thrush" and "thrusts" 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 #43,306 of 530,003 scored English pairs, corpus vintage 2026-09-03, not spelling advice.

Source: Wiktionary (via kaikki.org) Structured Wiktionary extract

Source: FrequencyWords open word-frequency list