Which to use
“us's” is a contraction and “used” is a verb - they look or sound alike but fill different roles in a sentence.
- #40,501
- “us's” frequency rank
- #156
- “used” frequency rank
- 40657
- confusion score
Side-by-Side Comparison
| Feature | us's | used |
|---|---|---|
| Definition | Contraction of us + is. | simple past and past participle of use |
Where the eye mixes us's and used
Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 2 letters in sequence.
Look-alike desk: us's vs used
These two trip readers on the page rather than in the ear: us's is /ˈʌsɪz/ while used is /juːzd/. Spoken aloud the problem disappears. In writing it persists, because they share most of their letters but differ in 2 positions, and the parts of speech differ too (contraction vs verb), which is usually the fastest check. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 40657, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.
us's is recorded at frequency rank #40,501, classified as acontraction, pronounced /ˈʌsɪz/. used is at rank #156, tagged as averb, pronounced /juːzd/.
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 40657, this pair ranks #265,534 of 530,003 scored English confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.
Orthographic DNA of us's vs used
Shared letters: su. Private to "us's": -. Private to "used": de.
"us's" · 3 letters · shape VCC · "used" · 4 letters · shape VCVC
Known mistypes of this pair
- used ← uesd · usde · usedd · ussed
Frequently Asked Questions
Can "us's" and "used" be used interchangeably?
Frequency check: "us's" vs "used" - which ranks higher?
Useful next steps
Pronunciation already separates them, if the page still looks alike, the dictionary links below settle it.
- Full dictionary entry for "us's" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
- Full dictionary entry for "used" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
- This pair ranks #265,534 of 530,003 scored English confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
- "us's" and "used" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "UAS vs us's". 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 #265,534 of 530,003 scored English pairs, corpus vintage 2026-09-03, not spelling advice.