Which to use
“thu” and “thug” are a confusable French pair: similar on the page, but distinct in meaning, check the gloss before you choose.
- #48,228
- “thu” frequency rank
- #48,229
- “thug” frequency rank
- 96457
- confusion score
Side-by-Side Comparison
| Feature | thu | thug |
|---|---|---|
| Definition | Forme mutée de tu par spirantisation. | Membre d’une secte indienne qui pratiquait la strangulation rituelle. |
Where the eye mixes thu and thug
Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 3 letters in sequence. thu runs 3 letters (CCV) against thug's 4 (CCVC) - the length gap alone is often enough to separate them once you know to check it.
Visual trap between thu and thug
A purely visual mix-up. thu (\θɨː\) 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 differ by 1 extra letter(s) - “thu” sits inside “thug”. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 96457, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.
thu is recorded at frequency rank #48,228, classified as anoun, pronounced \θɨː\. 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 96457, this pair ranks #665 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - among the most confusable pairs.
Orthographic DNA of thu vs thug
Shared letters: htu. Private to "thu": -. Private to "thug": g.
"thu" · 3 letters · shape CCV · "thug" · 4 letters · shape CCVC
Known mistypes of this pair
- thug ← htug · thgu · thhug · thugg · tthug · tuhg
Frequently Asked Questions
Is swapping "thu" for "thug" ever safe?
In ordinary French text, does "thu" or "thug" show up more?
Useful next steps
Visual near-miss handled. Browse the word pages or a neighbour when the next look-alike shows up.
- Full dictionary entry for "thu" 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 #665 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
- "thu" and "thug" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "thu vs tif". 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 #665 of 440,172 scored French pairs, corpus vintage 2026-09-03, not spelling advice.