gunvsgutWhich spelling fits?

Which to use

“gun” and “gut” are a confusable French pair: similar on the page, but distinct in meaning, check the gloss before you choose.

#15,153
“gun” frequency rank
#45,089
“gut” frequency rank
60242
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature gun gut
Definition Pistolet, flingue. Rituel chamanique consistant à communiquer avec les esprits.

Where the eye mixes gun and gut

Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 2 letters in sequence.

3 ch
gun
3 ch
gut

Visual trap between gun and gut

A purely visual mix-up. gun (\ɡœn\) and gut (\ɡyt\) 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 a single letter - n in “gun” becomes t in “gut”. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 60242, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

gun is recorded at frequency rank #15,153, classified as anoun, pronounced \ɡœn\. gut is at rank #45,089, tagged as anoun, pronounced \ɡyt\.

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 60242, this pair ranks #98,683 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - among the most confusable pairs.

Orthographic DNA of gun vs gut

Shared letters: gu. Private to "gun": n. Private to "gut": t.

"gun" · 3 letters · shape CVC  ·  "gut" · 3 letters · shape CVC

Frequently Asked Questions

Is swapping "gun" for "gut" ever safe?
No. They are said differently (\ɡœn\ versus \ɡyt\) and carry different meanings; reading the sentence aloud is usually enough to catch the wrong one.
Which is more common, "gun" or "gut"?
"gun" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #15,153 in our French list, against #45,089 for "gut". The two are close in frequency, so neither is a safe default; check the meaning rather than guessing.

After this comparison

Pronunciation already separates them, if the page still looks alike, the dictionary links below settle it.

  • Full dictionary entry for "gun" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "gut" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #98,683 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "gun" and "gut" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "glue vs gut". Nearby pair

Confusion rank #98,683 of 440,172 scored French pairs, corpus vintage 2026-09-03, not spelling advice.

Source: Wiktionary (via kaikki.org) Structured Wiktionary extract

Source: FrequencyWords open word-frequency list