Which to use
“thou” and “thug” are a confusable French pair: similar on the page, but distinct in meaning, check the gloss before you choose.
- #44,777
- “thou” frequency rank
- #48,229
- “thug” frequency rank
- 93006
- confusion score
Side-by-Side Comparison
| Feature | thou | thug |
|---|---|---|
| Definition | Écluse en pierre ou en béton permettant de vider lentement les étangs de la Dombes dans l'Ain. | Membre d’une secte indienne qui pratiquait la strangulation rituelle. |
Where the eye mixes thou and thug
Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 3 letters in sequence. thou (CCVV) and thug (CCVC) run the same length but a different consonant-vowel pattern - the shape difference is usually the fastest tell.
Visual trap between thou and thug
A purely visual mix-up. thou (\tu\) and thug (\tœɡ\) are said differently, so reading them aloud is the quickest way to catch the wrong one. On the page they stay close: they share most of their letters but differ in 2 positions. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 93006, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.
thou is recorded at frequency rank #44,777, classified as anoun, pronounced \tu\. thug is at rank #48,229, tagged as anoun, pronounced \tœɡ\.
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 93006, this pair ranks #2,591 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - among the most confusable pairs.
Orthographic DNA of thou vs thug
Shared letters: htu. Private to "thou": o. Private to "thug": g.
"thou" · 4 letters · shape CCVV · "thug" · 4 letters · shape CCVC
Known mistypes of this pair
Frequently Asked Questions
Can "thou" and "thug" be used interchangeably?
Frequency check: "thou" vs "thug" - which ranks higher?
After this comparison
Visual near-miss handled. Browse the word pages or a neighbour when the next look-alike shows up.
- Full dictionary entry for "thou" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
- Full dictionary entry for "thug" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
- This pair ranks #2,591 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
- "thou" and "thug" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "thug vs tun". 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 #2,591 of 440,172 scored French pairs, corpus vintage 2026-09-03, not spelling advice.