Which to use
“tuft” and “tun” are a confusable English pair: similar on the page, but distinct in meaning, check the gloss before you choose.
- #49,682
- “tuft” frequency rank
- #30,265
- “tun” frequency rank
- 79947
- confusion score
Side-by-Side Comparison
| Feature | tuft | tun |
|---|---|---|
| Definition | A bunch of feathers, grass or hair, etc., held together at the base. | A large cask; an oblong vessel bulging in the middle, like a pipe or puncheon, and girt with hoops; a wine cask. (See a diagram comparing cask sizes.) |
Where the eye mixes tuft and tun
Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 2 letters in sequence. tuft runs 4 letters (CVCC) against tun's 3 (CVC) - the length gap alone is often enough to separate them once you know to check it.
Why the eye confuses tuft with tun
A purely visual mix-up. tuft (/tʌft/) and tun (/tʌn/) 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 79947, 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/. tun is at rank #30,265, tagged as anoun, pronounced /tʌn/.
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 79947, this pair ranks #20,932 of 530,003 scored English confusable pairs - among the most confusable pairs.
Orthographic DNA of tuft vs tun
Shared letters: tu. Private to "tuft": f. Private to "tun": n.
"tuft" · 4 letters · shape CVCC · "tun" · 3 letters · shape CVC
Known mistypes of this pair
- tuft ← tfut · ttuft · tufft · tuftt · tutf · utft
Frequently Asked Questions
Is swapping "tuft" for "tun" ever safe?
In ordinary English text, does "tuft" or "tun" show up more?
Useful next steps
Eye-level mix-up between "tuft" and "tun" is sorted above. Next: full entries or other pairs that share a letter shape.
- Full dictionary entry for "tuft" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
- Full dictionary entry for "tun" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
- This pair ranks #20,932 of 530,003 scored English confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
- "tuft" and "tun" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "Taf vs tuft". 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 #20,932 of 530,003 scored English pairs, corpus vintage 2026-09-03, not spelling advice.