Which to use
“tulip” and “turnip” are a confusable English pair: similar on the page, but distinct in meaning, check the gloss before you choose.
- #23,137
- “tulip” frequency rank
- #35,562
- “turnip” frequency rank
- 58699
- confusion score
Side-by-Side Comparison
| Feature | tulip | turnip |
|---|---|---|
| Definition | A type of flowering plant, genus Tulipa. | The white root of a yellow-flowered plant, Brassica rapa, grown as a vegetable and as fodder for cattle. |
Where the eye mixes tulip and turnip
Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 4 letters in sequence. tulip runs 5 letters (CVCVC) against turnip's 6 (CVCCVC) - the length gap alone is often enough to separate them once you know to check it.
Why the eye confuses tulip with turnip
A purely visual mix-up. tulip (/ˈtulɪp/) and turnip (/ˈtɜː.nɪp/) 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 58699, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.
tulip is recorded at frequency rank #23,137, classified as anoun, pronounced /ˈtulɪp/. turnip is at rank #35,562, tagged as anoun, pronounced /ˈtɜː.nɪp/.
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 58699, this pair ranks #110,871 of 530,003 scored English confusable pairs - among the most confusable pairs.
Orthographic DNA of tulip vs turnip
Shared letters: iptu. Private to "tulip": l. Private to "turnip": nr.
"tulip" · 5 letters · shape CVCVC · "turnip" · 6 letters · shape CVCCVC
Known mistypes of this pair
Frequently Asked Questions
Is swapping "tulip" for "turnip" ever safe?
Which is more common, "tulip" or "turnip"?
After this comparison
Eye-level mix-up between "tulip" and "turnip" is sorted above. Next: full entries or other pairs that share a letter shape.
- Full dictionary entry for "tulip" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
- Full dictionary entry for "turnip" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
- This pair ranks #110,871 of 530,003 scored English confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
- "tulip" and "turnip" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "Turkic vs turnip". 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 #110,871 of 530,003 scored English pairs, corpus vintage 2026-09-03, not spelling advice.