Which to use
“tui” and “turd” are a confusable English pair: similar on the page, but distinct in meaning, check the gloss before you choose.
- #38,658
- “tui” frequency rank
- #24,036
- “turd” frequency rank
- 62694
- confusion score
Side-by-Side Comparison
| Feature | tui | turd |
|---|---|---|
| Definition | A species of honeyeater, Prosthemadera novaeseelandiae, a bird which is endemic to New Zealand. | A piece of solid feces. |
Where the eye mixes tui and turd
Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 2 letters in sequence. tui runs 3 letters (CVV) against turd's 4 (CVCC) - the length gap alone is often enough to separate them once you know to check it.
Why the eye confuses tui with turd
A purely visual mix-up. tui (/ˈtʉi/) and turd (/tɜːd/) 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 62694, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.
tui is recorded at frequency rank #38,658, classified as anoun, pronounced /ˈtʉi/. turd is at rank #24,036, tagged as anoun, pronounced /tɜːd/.
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 62694, this pair ranks #87,042 of 530,003 scored English confusable pairs - among the most confusable pairs.
Orthographic DNA of tui vs turd
Shared letters: tu. Private to "tui": i. Private to "turd": dr.
"tui" · 3 letters · shape CVV · "turd" · 4 letters · shape CVCC
Known mistypes of this pair
- turd ← trud · tturd · tudr · turdd · turrd · utrd
Frequently Asked Questions
Is swapping "tui" for "turd" ever safe?
Which is more common, "tui" or "turd"?
What to do next
Eye-level mix-up between "tui" and "turd" is sorted above. Next: full entries or other pairs that share a letter shape.
- Full dictionary entry for "tui" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
- Full dictionary entry for "turd" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
- This pair ranks #87,042 of 530,003 scored English confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
- "tui" and "turd" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "tuft vs tui". 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 #87,042 of 530,003 scored English pairs, corpus vintage 2026-09-03, not spelling advice.