hadvshotWhat's the difference?

Quick tell: had is a verb, hot is an adjective, so they fill different roles in a sentence.

Which to use

“had” is a verb and “hot” is an adjective - they look or sound alike but fill different roles in a sentence.

#15,906
“had” frequency rank
#5,185
“hot” frequency rank
21091
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature had hot
Definition Präteritum (simple past) des Verbs have von sehr hoher Temperatur, heiß

Where the eye mixes had and hot

Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 1 letter in sequence.

3 ch
had
3 ch
hot

Spelling & Dictionary Insight

These two trip readers on the page rather than in the ear: had is [hæd] while hot is [hɒt]. 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 (verb vs adjective), which is usually the fastest check. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 21091, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

had is recorded at frequency rank #15,906, classified as averb, pronounced [hæd]. hot is at rank #5,185, tagged as anadj, pronounced [hɒt].

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 21091, this pair ranks #1,890,264 of 2,006,359 scored German confusable pairs - a relatively easy-to-tell-apart pair.

Orthographic DNA of had vs hot

Shared letters: h. Private to "had": ad. Private to "hot": ot.

"had" · 3 letters · shape CVC  ·  "hot" · 3 letters · shape CVC

Frequently Asked Questions

Can "had" and "hot" be used interchangeably?
No - they are not even the same part of speech. "had" is a verb and "hot" an adjective, so a sentence built for one is usually ungrammatical with the other.
Which is more common, "had" or "hot"?
"hot" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #5,185 in our German list, against #15,906 for "had". The two are close in frequency, so neither is a safe default; check the meaning rather than guessing.

What to do next

You've compared "had" and "hot". Here's where to go from here.

  • Full dictionary entry for "had" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "hot" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #1,890,264 of 2,006,359 scored German confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "had" and "hot" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "had vs haze". Nearby pair

PlainSpell is a reference corpus, not spelling advice. Verify unusual forms in context.

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

Source: FrequencyWords open word-frequency list