hamavshayWhich spelling fits?

Which to use

“hama” and “hay” are a confusable German pair: similar on the page, but distinct in meaning, check the gloss before you choose.

#44,666
“hama” frequency rank
#32,588
“hay” frequency rank
77254
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature hama hay
Definition Eimer, Schüssel Tierfutter; Heu

Letter map: hama vs hay

Shared letters muted; letters that set hama and hay apart highlighted. Shared run: 2. hama runs 4 letters (CVCV) against hay's 3 (CVV) - the length gap alone is often enough to separate them once you know to check it.

4 ch
hama
3 ch
hay

Corpus notes: hama and hay

hama and hay are indexed as a confusable German pair. We have no recorded pronunciation or part of speech for both members, so the spelling overlap is what we can show you: they differ by 1 letter(s) in length. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 77254, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

hama is recorded at frequency rank #44,666, classified as anoun. hay is at rank #32,588, tagged as anoun, pronounced [heɪ].

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 77254, this pair ranks #264,958 of 2,006,359 scored German confusable pairs - among the most confusable pairs.

Orthographic DNA of hama vs hay

Shared letters: ah. Private to "hama": m. Private to "hay": y.

"hama" · 4 letters · shape CVCV  ·  "hay" · 3 letters · shape CVV

Known mistypes of this pair

  • hama ← ahma · haam · hamma · hhama · hmaa

Frequently Asked Questions

Is swapping "hama" for "hay" ever safe?
No. They differ by 1 letter(s) in length, but the dictionary glosses above give them different meanings, so swapping one for the other changes what the sentence says.
Frequency check: "hama" vs "hay" - which ranks higher?
"hay" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #32,588 in our German list, against #44,666 for "hama". 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 "hama" and "hay". Here's where to go from here.

  • Full dictionary entry for "hama" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "hay" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #264,958 of 2,006,359 scored German confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "hama" and "hay" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "hama 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 #264,958 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