Which to use
“harm” and “hay” are a confusable German pair: similar on the page, but distinct in meaning, check the gloss before you choose.
- #46,723
- “harm” frequency rank
- #32,588
- “hay” frequency rank
- 79311
- confusion score
Side-by-Side Comparison
| Feature | harm | hay |
|---|---|---|
| Definition | körperlicher oder geistiger Schaden | Tierfutter; Heu |
Letter map: harm vs hay
Shared letters muted; letters that set harm and hay apart highlighted. Shared run: 2.
Corpus notes: harm and hay
harm 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 79311, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.
harm is recorded at frequency rank #46,723, classified as anoun, pronounced […]. 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 79311, this pair ranks #219,179 of 2,006,359 scored German confusable pairs - among the most confusable pairs.
Orthographic DNA of harm vs hay
Shared letters: ah. Private to "harm": mr. Private to "hay": y.
"harm" · 4 letters · shape CVCC · "hay" · 3 letters · shape CVV
Known mistypes of this pair
- harm ← ahrm · hamr · harmm · harrm · hharm · hram
Frequently Asked Questions
Is swapping "harm" for "hay" ever safe?
Which is more common, "harm" or "hay"?
What to do next
Done with this confusable. These links stay specific to "harm" and "hay".
- Full dictionary entry for "harm" 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 #219,179 of 2,006,359 scored German confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
- "harm" and "hay" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "harm vs puzzles". 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 #219,179 of 2,006,359 scored German pairs, corpus vintage 2026-09-03, not spelling advice.