hurt vs hush, What's the Difference?

Which to use

“hurt” is an adjective and “hush” is a noun - they look or sound alike but fill different roles in a sentence.

#23,362
“hurt” frequency rank: #34,316
“hush” frequency rank: 57678
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature	hurt	hush
Definition	machucado, ferido	silêncio

Where the spellings diverge

Shared letters are muted; the letters that actually set hurt and hush apart are highlighted. They share 2 letters in sequence, which is exactly why the eye skips the difference.

4 ch

hurt

4 ch

hush

Spelling & Dictionary Insight

These two trip readers on the page rather than in the ear: hurt is /hɜːt/ while hush is /hʌʃ/, /hʊʃ/. Spoken aloud the problem disappears. In writing it persists, because they share most of their letters but differ in 2 positions, and the parts of speech differ too (adjective vs noun), which is usually the fastest check. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 57678, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

hurt is recorded at frequency rank #23,362, classified as anadj, pronounced /hɜːt/. hush is at rank #34,316, tagged as anoun, pronounced /hʌʃ/, /hʊʃ/.

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 57678, this pair ranks #9,183 of 75,631 scored Portuguese confusable pairs - among the most confusable pairs.

Orthographic DNA of hurt vs hush

Shared letters: hu. Private to "hurt": rt. Private to "hush": s.

"hurt" · 4 letters · shape CVCC · "hush" · 4 letters · shape CVCC

Known mistypes of this pair

hurt ← hhurt · hrut · hurrt · hurtt · hutr · uhrt
hush ← hhush · hsuh · huhs · hushh · hussh · uhsh

Frequency comparison

hurt#23,362

hush#34,316

Source: FrequencyWords open word-frequency list

Frequently Asked Questions

Can "hurt" and "hush" be used interchangeably?

No - they are not even the same part of speech. "hurt" is an adjective and "hush" a noun, so a sentence built for one is usually ungrammatical with the other.

Which is more common, "hurt" or "hush"?

"hurt" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #23,362 in our Portuguese list, against #34,316 for "hush". The two are close in frequency, so neither is a safe default; check the meaning rather than guessing.

Remembering hurt vs hush

The fastest way to pick the right one every time.

Check the role first: if you need an adjective, it's “hurt”; for a noun, it's “hush”.
See each word in full, definition, IPA, etymology and its other confusables. Full “hurt” entry
Browse more pairs most likely to be confused. Most confusable