Which to use
“tuft” is a noun and “tug” is a verb - they look or sound alike but fill different roles in a sentence.
- #49,682
- “tuft” frequency rank
- #15,079
- “tug” frequency rank
- 64761
- confusion score
Side-by-Side Comparison
| Feature | tuft | tug |
|---|---|---|
| Definition | A bunch of feathers, grass or hair, etc., held together at the base. | To pull or drag with great effort. |
Where the eye mixes tuft and tug
Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 2 letters in sequence.
Spelling & Dictionary Insight
These two trip readers on the page rather than in the ear: tuft is /tʌft/ while tug is /tʌɡ/. Spoken aloud the problem disappears. In writing it persists, because they differ by 1 letter(s) in length, and the parts of speech differ too (noun vs verb), which is usually the fastest check. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 64761, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.
tuft is recorded at frequency rank #49,682, classified as anoun, pronounced /tʌft/. tug is at rank #15,079, tagged as averb, pronounced /tʌɡ/.
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 64761, this pair ranks #76,111 of 530,003 scored English confusable pairs - among the most confusable pairs.
Orthographic DNA of tuft vs tug
Shared letters: tu. Private to "tuft": f. Private to "tug": g.
"tuft" · 4 letters · shape CVCC · "tug" · 3 letters · shape CVC
Known mistypes of this pair
- tuft ← tfut · ttuft · tufft · tuftt · tutf · utft