roughvsrushWhat's the difference?

Which to use

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

#38,518
“rough” frequency rank
#12,245
“rush” frequency rank
50763
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature rough rush
Definition Bordure non entretenue d’un terrain de golf. Attaque soudaine.

Where the eye mixes rough and rush

Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 3 letters in sequence.

5 ch
rough
4 ch
rush

Visual trap between rough and rush

A purely visual mix-up. rough (\ʁœf\) and rush (\ʁœʃ\) 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 50763, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

rough is recorded at frequency rank #38,518, classified as anoun, pronounced \ʁœf\. rush is at rank #12,245, tagged as anoun, pronounced \ʁœʃ\.

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 50763, this pair ranks #160,176 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.

Orthographic DNA of rough vs rush

Shared letters: hru. Private to "rough": go. Private to "rush": s.

"rough" · 5 letters · shape CVVCC  ·  "rush" · 4 letters · shape CVCC

Known mistypes of this pair

  • roughorugh · roguh · rouggh · roughh · rouhg · rrough · ruogh
  • rushrrush · rsuh · ruhs · rushh · russh · ursh

Frequently Asked Questions

Is swapping "rough" for "rush" ever safe?
No. They are said differently (\ʁœf\ versus \ʁœʃ\) and carry different meanings; reading the sentence aloud is usually enough to catch the wrong one.
Frequency check: "rough" vs "rush" - which ranks higher?
"rush" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #12,245 in our French list, against #38,518 for "rough". The two are close in frequency, so neither is a safe default; check the meaning rather than guessing.

After this comparison

Eye-level mix-up between "rough" and "rush" is sorted above. Next: full entries or other pairs that share a letter shape.

  • Full dictionary entry for "rough" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "rush" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #160,176 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "rough" and "rush" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "rog vs rough". 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 #160,176 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