hatsvshostsWhich spelling fits?

Quick tell: hats is a noun, hosts is a verb, so they fill different roles in a sentence.

Which to use

“hats” is a noun and “hosts” is a verb - they look or sound alike but fill different roles in a sentence.

#9,734
“hats” frequency rank
#43,973
“hosts” frequency rank
53707
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature hats hosts
Definition Plural des Substantivs hat 3. Person Singular Indikativ Präsens Aktiv des Verbs host

Letter map: hats vs hosts

Shared letters muted; letters that set hats and hosts apart highlighted. Shared run: 3. hats runs 4 letters (CVCC) against hosts's 5 (CVCCC) - the length gap alone is often enough to separate them once you know to check it.

4 ch
hats
5 ch
hosts

Grammar separator: hats vs hosts

Our dataset has no pronunciation recorded for both members, so the reliable separator here is grammatical: hats is anoun and hostsaverb. On the page they differ by 1 letter(s) in length. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 53707, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

hats is recorded at frequency rank #9,734, classified as anoun, pronounced [hæts]. hosts is at rank #43,973, tagged as averb, pronounced […].

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 53707, this pair ranks #1,047,503 of 2,006,359 scored German confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.

Orthographic DNA of hats vs hosts

Shared letters: hst. Private to "hats": a. Private to "hosts": o.

"hats" · 4 letters · shape CVCC  ·  "hosts" · 5 letters · shape CVCCC

Known mistypes of this pair

  • hats ← ahts · hatss · hatts · hhats · htas
  • hosts ← hhosts · hossts · hostss · hostts · hotss · hsots · ohsts

Frequently Asked Questions

Is swapping "hats" for "hosts" ever safe?
No - they are not even the same part of speech. "hats" is a noun and "hosts" a verb, so a sentence built for one is usually ungrammatical with the other.
Frequency check: "hats" vs "hosts" - which ranks higher?
"hats" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #9,734 in our German list, against #43,973 for "hosts". The two are close in frequency, so neither is a safe default; check the meaning rather than guessing.

Useful next steps

Pair "hats" vs "hosts" is on the table, pick a follow-up below.

  • Full dictionary entry for "hats" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "hosts" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #1,047,503 of 2,006,359 scored German confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "hats" and "hosts" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "hosts 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 #1,047,503 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