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fuse

/fjuːz/noun, verb

fuse is spelled F-U-S-E: 4 letters and one syllable. It appears 4.2 times per million words in written English, the 12,578th most frequent word form (wordfreq, 2021 data). People search “fuse vs fuze” about 480 times a month (Google, United States). As a noun, fuse means “A wick or cord used to convey flame to gunpowder, a bomb, or similar explosive” (English Wiktionary, September 2026). The plural of fuse is fuses.

How many letters and syllables are in fuse?

Letters4: F-U-S-E
Syllables1
In writing4.2 times per million words; the 12,578th most frequent word form
Wrong spellings searchednone measured in search
Pairs people search
Sounds like

Sources: letters and syllables from the English Wiktionary's hyphenation or pronunciation; written frequency: wordfreq 3.1 (a 2021 snapshot of Wikipedia, subtitles, news, books, web text and social media); Bing searches in the United States: the average month from September 2025 to August 2026 (Microsoft Advertising keyword data through DataForSEO, read September 30, 2026).

How common is fuse?

Fuse appears 4.2 times per million words in written English, the 12,578th most frequent word form in the list.

Source: written frequency: wordfreq 3.1 (a 2021 snapshot of Wikipedia, subtitles, news, books, web text and social media).

How do you pronounce fuse?

  • /fjuːz/

Fuse has one syllable.

Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract). Recordings: LL-Q1860_(eng)-Vealhurl-fuse.wav, Wikimedia Commons (author and licence on each file's page).

Words people confuse with fuse

Word pairs people search, with the monthly searches for “a vs b” (G: Google, B: Bing, United States).

fuse vs fuze480 G

Sounds like: fuze (Wiktionary's homophone list; some hold only in some accents).

Also written: fuze.

Sources: Google and Bing searches (September 2025 to August 2026, through DataForSEO); English Wiktionary (homophones, alternative spellings).

Forms of fuse

  • fuses plural, present, singular, he/she/it
  • fusing participle, present
  • fused participle, past

Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract).

What does fuse mean?

The meanings the English Wiktionary records, quoted as written there (source below).

noun

  1. 1

    A wick or cord used to convey flame to gunpowder, a bomb, or similar explosive.

  2. 2

    An otherwise stable arbitrarily long repeating pattern that, when perturbed from one end, destructively carries that perturbation at a constant speed to the other end.

  3. 3

    proscribedAlternative spelling of fuze, a detonator, any mechanism igniting an explosive substance or device.

  4. 4

    A tendency to lose one's temper.

    When talking about being laid off, he has a short fuse.

  5. 5

    A friction match for smokers' use, having a bulbous head which when ignited is not easily blown out even in a gale of wind.

  6. 6

    A match made of paper impregnated with niter and having the usual igniting tip.

  7. 7

    A device to prevent excessive overcurrent from overload or short circuit in an electrical circuit, containing a component that melts and interrupts the current when too high a load is passed through it.

verb

  1. 1

    To furnish with a fuse, to install a fuse on.

  2. 2

    proscribedAlternative spelling of fuze, to equip with a detonator.

  3. 3

    To liquify by heat; melt.

    Pure sodium is a lustrous metal... it fuses very easily at a temperature of 97°, and distils at a bright red heat (742°...)

  4. 4

    To melt together; to blend; to mix indistinguishably.

    sensations and ideas fusing intimately together

  5. 5

    To melt together.

  6. 6

    To combine through nuclear fusion.

  7. 7

    To furnish with or install a fuse in (a circuit) to protect against overcurrent.

  8. 8

    To stop operating, having been protected against overcurrent by its fuse blowing.

    When the bath overflowed, the downstairs lights fused, so we need a torch.

  9. 9

    To form a bicyclic compound from two similar or different types of ring such that two or more atoms are shared between the resulting rings.

Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract).

Fuse in Spanish, French, German and Portuguese

LanguageWords
Frenchcordeau, mèche (wick or cord used to convey flame to an…), détonateur (detonator), plomb (tendency to lose one's temper), fusible (device preventing overload of a circuit), fondre (transitive: to melt together)
GermanZündschnur (wick or cord used to convey flame to an…), Zünder (detonator), Sicherung (device preventing overload of a circuit), verschmelzen (transitive: to melt together), absichern (transitive: to furnish with a fuse)
Portuguesepavio, rastilho (wick or cord used to convey flame to an…), fusível (device preventing overload of a circuit), fundir (transitive: to melt together)
Spanishmecha (wick or cord used to convey flame to an…), espoleta, espiga (detonator), fusible, fius (device preventing overload of a circuit), fundir (transitive: to melt together)

Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract). Translations are Wiktionary's, by sense; a linked word has its own PlainSpell page.

Where does fuse come from?

From Italian fuso and French fusée, from Latin fūsus (“spindle”).

Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract).

What to look up after fuse