habsvshamWhat's the difference?

Quick tell: habs is a abbrev, ham is a noun, so they fill different roles in a sentence.

Which to use

“habs” is an abbrev and “ham” is a noun - they look or sound alike but fill different roles in a sentence.

#4,992
“habs” frequency rank
#10,294
“ham” frequency rank
15286
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature habs ham
Definition habe es äußerste Hautschicht bei Amphibien und Reptilien; Haut

Letter map: habs vs ham

Shared letters muted; letters that set habs and ham apart highlighted. Shared run: 2.

4 ch
habs
3 ch
ham

Grammar separator: habs vs ham

Our dataset has no pronunciation recorded for both members, so the reliable separator here is grammatical: habs is anabbrev and hamanoun. On the page they differ by 1 letter(s) in length. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 15286, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

habs is recorded at frequency rank #4,992, classified as anabbrev, pronounced […]. ham is at rank #10,294, tagged as anoun, pronounced [ˈhɑmˀ].

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 15286, this pair ranks #1,945,054 of 2,006,359 scored German confusable pairs - a relatively easy-to-tell-apart pair.

Orthographic DNA of habs vs ham

Shared letters: ah. Private to "habs": bs. Private to "ham": m.

"habs" · 4 letters · shape CVCC  ·  "ham" · 3 letters · shape CVC

Known mistypes of this pair

  • habsahbs · habbs · habss · hasb · hbas · hhabs

Frequently Asked Questions

Do "habs" and "ham" mean the same thing in a sentence?
No - they are not even the same part of speech. "habs" is an abbrev and "ham" a noun, so a sentence built for one is usually ungrammatical with the other.
Frequency check: "habs" vs "ham" - which ranks higher?
"habs" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #4,992 in our German list, against #10,294 for "ham". The two are close in frequency, so neither is a safe default; check the meaning rather than guessing.

What to do next

Done with this confusable. These links stay specific to "habs" and "ham".

  • Full dictionary entry for "habs" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "ham" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #1,945,054 of 2,006,359 scored German confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "habs" and "ham" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "ham vs haze". 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 #1,945,054 of 2,006,359 scored German pairs, corpus vintage 2026-09-03, not spelling advice.

Source: Wiktionary (via kaikki.org) Structured Wiktionary extract

Source: FrequencyWords open word-frequency list