Which to use
“trunk” and “tusk” are a confusable English pair: similar on the page, but distinct in meaning, check the gloss before you choose.
- #6,851
- “trunk” frequency rank
- #31,017
- “tusk” frequency rank
- 37868
- confusion score
Side-by-Side Comparison
| Feature | trunk | tusk |
|---|---|---|
| Definition | Part of a body. | One of a pair of elongated pointed teeth that extend outside the mouth of an animal such as walrus, elephant or wild boar, and which continue to grow throughout the animal's life. |
Where the eye mixes trunk and tusk
Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 3 letters in sequence.
Why the eye confuses trunk with tusk
A purely visual mix-up. trunk (/tɹʌŋk/) and tusk (/ˈtʌsk/) 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 37868, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.
trunk is recorded at frequency rank #6,851, classified as anoun, pronounced /tɹʌŋk/. tusk is at rank #31,017, tagged as anoun, pronounced /ˈtʌsk/.
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 37868, this pair ranks #290,782 of 530,003 scored English confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.
Orthographic DNA of trunk vs tusk
Shared letters: ktu. Private to "trunk": nr. Private to "tusk": s.
"trunk" · 5 letters · shape CCVCC · "tusk" · 4 letters · shape CVCC
Known mistypes of this pair
Frequently Asked Questions
Is swapping "trunk" for "tusk" ever safe?
In ordinary English text, does "trunk" or "tusk" show up more?
Useful next steps
Visual near-miss handled. Browse the word pages or a neighbour when the next look-alike shows up.
- Full dictionary entry for "trunk" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
- Full dictionary entry for "tusk" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
- This pair ranks #290,782 of 530,003 scored English confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
- "trunk" and "tusk" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "tuft vs tusk". 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 #290,782 of 530,003 scored English pairs, corpus vintage 2026-09-03, not spelling advice.