HautvshugWhat's the difference?

Which to use

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

#1,391
“Haut” frequency rank
#25,600
“hug” frequency rank
26991
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature Haut hug
Definition größtes Sinnesorgan bei Menschen und Tieren, das gleichzeitig als Schutz des darunterliegenden Gewebes, Atmung, Wärmeregulierung und anderem dient die Umarmung: das Legen von Armen um jemanden

Where the eye mixes Haut and hug

Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 2 letters in sequence.

4 ch
Haut
3 ch
hug

Spelling & Dictionary Insight

A purely visual mix-up. Haut ([haʊ̯t]) and hug ([hʌɡ]) are said differently, so reading them aloud is the quickest way to catch the wrong one. On the page they stay close: they differ by 1 letter(s) in length. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 26991, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

Haut is recorded at frequency rank #1,391, classified as anoun, pronounced [haʊ̯t]. hug is at rank #25,600, tagged as anoun, pronounced [hʌɡ].

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 26991, this pair ranks #1,809,042 of 2,006,359 scored German confusable pairs - a relatively easy-to-tell-apart pair.

Orthographic DNA of Haut vs hug

Shared letters: hu. Private to "Haut": at. Private to "hug": g.

"Haut" · 4 letters · shape CVVC  ·  "hug" · 3 letters · shape CVC

Known mistypes of this pair

  • Hautahut · hatu · hautt · hhaut · huat

Frequently Asked Questions

Can "Haut" and "hug" be used interchangeably?
No. They are said differently ([haʊ̯t] versus [hʌɡ]) and carry different meanings; reading the sentence aloud is usually enough to catch the wrong one.
Which is more common, "Haut" or "hug"?
"Haut" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #1,391 in our German list, against #25,600 for "hug". That is a wide gap, so in ordinary text the rarer spelling is the one worth double-checking.

What to do next

You've compared "Haut" and "hug". Here's where to go from here.

  • Full dictionary entry for "Haut" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "hug" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #1,809,042 of 2,006,359 scored German confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "Haut" and "hug" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "höh vs hug". 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

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