Which to use
“thrust” and “thrusts” are a confusable English pair: similar on the page, but distinct in meaning, check the gloss before you choose.
- #8,871
- “thrust” frequency rank
- #36,373
- “thrusts” frequency rank
- 45244
- confusion score
Side-by-Side Comparison
| Feature | thrust | thrusts |
|---|---|---|
| Definition | An attack made by moving the sword parallel to its length and landing with the point. | plural of thrust |
Where the eye mixes thrust and thrusts
Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 6 letters in sequence.
Visual trap between thrust and thrusts
A purely visual mix-up. thrust (/θɹʌst/) 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 extra letter(s) - “thrust” sits inside “thrusts”. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 45244, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.
thrust is recorded at frequency rank #8,871, classified as anoun, pronounced /θɹʌst/. 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 45244, this pair ranks #223,046 of 530,003 scored English confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.
Orthographic DNA of thrust vs thrusts
Shared letters: hrstu. Private to "thrust": -. Private to "thrusts": -.
"thrust" · 6 letters · shape CCCVCC · "thrusts" · 7 letters · shape CCCVCCC
Known mistypes of this pair
Frequently Asked Questions
Is swapping "thrust" for "thrusts" ever safe?
Frequency check: "thrust" vs "thrusts" - 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 "thrust" 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 #223,046 of 530,003 scored English confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
- "thrust" and "thrusts" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "thruster vs thrusts". 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 #223,046 of 530,003 scored English pairs, corpus vintage 2026-09-03, not spelling advice.