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 eye mixes hurt and hush
Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 2 letters in sequence. hurt and hush follow the identical consonant-vowel pattern (CVCC). Same shape at a glance is often the real trap, independent of shared letters.
Look-alike desk: hurt vs hush
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
Frequently Asked Questions
Do "hurt" and "hush" mean the same thing in a sentence?
Which is more common, "hurt" or "hush"?
What to do next
Visual near-miss handled. Browse the word pages or a neighbour when the next look-alike shows up.
- Full dictionary entry for "hurt" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
- Full dictionary entry for "hush" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
- This pair ranks #9,183 of 75,631 scored Portuguese confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
- "hurt" and "hush" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "hui vs hush". 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 #9,183 of 75,631 scored Portuguese pairs, corpus vintage 2026-09-03, not spelling advice.