flush
/ˈflʌʃ/
"flush" is a 5-letter English headword indexed on PlainSpell.
The verdict
“flush” is a regularly-used English word, ranked #9,610 in English word frequency and used as a noun.
- #9,610
- frequency rank, English
- 5
- letters
- 8
- tracked misspellings
- 20
- confusable pairs
According to Wiktionary data (CC BY-SA, analyzed May 6, 2026) - A group of birds that have suddenly started up from undergrowth, trees, etc.
Visual similarity to commonly confused words
How many letter changes separate each confused pair (Levenshtein distance, normalized).
Source: PlainSpell confusable corpus (Wiktionary, CC BY-SA).
| Property | Value |
|---|---|
| Headword | flush |
| Language | English |
| Part of speech | Noun |
| IPA | /ˈflʌʃ/ |
| Letters | 5 |
| Frequency rank | #9,610 |
| Misspellings tracked | 8 |
| Confusable pairs | 20 |
| Source | Wiktionary (kaikki.org) |
Where “flush” sits in English frequency
Spelling & Dictionary Insight
The English entry for flush is 5 letters long, classified as a noun, and transcribed in the International Phonetic Alphabet as /ˈflʌʃ/. Corpus data places it at rank #9,610 in overall English word frequency, indicating it appears regularly in written and spoken text. The dominant gloss from Wiktionary reads: "A group of birds that have suddenly started up from undergrowth, trees, etc.".
Our generated misspelling index lists 8 likely wrong-spelling variants for flush, with forms such as "fflush", "fllush", and "flsuh". Every one of these variants traces to a single-character edit -- an added or dropped letter, a swapped consonant, or a vowel swap -- the kind of slip a spell-checker is built to catch. It also participates in 20 confusable-pair relationships, "fuse", "fuss", "flux", and more, since the words sound or look close enough that writers reach for the wrong one mid-sentence.
Etymologically, the entry records: From Middle English flusshen, fluschen, of uncertain origin. Compare dialectal flusk (“to fly at, startle a bird out of the bush”) and flusker (“to flutter, fly irregularly”). Perhaps related to Middle English flasshen, flasschen, flaschen, see flash; or a … The correct English form is flush, spelled F-L-U-S-H.
Definition
- 1A group of birds that have suddenly started up from undergrowth, trees, etc.
Etymology
From Middle English flusshen, fluschen, of uncertain origin. Compare dialectal flusk (“to fly at, startle a bird out of the bush”) and flusker (“to flutter, fly irregularly”). Perhaps related to Middle English flasshen, flasschen, flaschen, see flash; or a Middle English blend of flowen (“to flow”) + guschen (“to gush”). Compare Saterland Frisian flutskje, German Low German flutschen, German flutschen.
Common misspellings
Also misspelled as: fflush,fllush,flsuh,fluhs,flushh,flussh,fulsh,lfush
Misspelling Pattern Breakdown
How far each generated variant is from the correct spelling of flush - measured in single-character edits (insert, delete, or substitute a letter). Larger bars are easier to catch; one-edit slips are the sneakiest.
Definitions, pronunciation, and etymology for this entry are drawn from Wiktionary via the kaikki.org structured extract (CC BY-SA); frequency ordering uses the FrequencyWords open word-frequency list (2018 English corpus, MIT). See the methodology for how each field is sourced and updated.
Frequently Asked Questions
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Using “flush”
The practical upshot for anyone who landed here from a spell-check.
- The one correct English spelling is F-L-U-S-H - every other letter order is a misspelling in standard orthography.
- Say it as /ˈflʌʃ/ (IPA); tap the speaker on the pronunciation badge to hear it where audio exists.
- Don't mix it up with “fuse” - see the side-by-side comparison. flush vs fuse
- Browse more English words and confusable pairs in the same reference. English words
Data Source
Wiktionary (via kaikki.org), licensed under CC BY-SA & GFDL. Word ordering uses an open word-frequency list; misspelling variants are generated by edit-distance from the correct headword.