hayvshazeWhat's the difference?

Which to use

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

#32,588
“hay” frequency rank
#49,774
“haze” frequency rank
82362
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature hay haze
Definition Tierfutter; Heu Atmosphäre, Wetter: sehr feine, weit verstreute feste oder flüssige Partikel in der Luft

Where the eye mixes hay and haze

Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 2 letters in sequence. hay runs 3 letters (CVV) against haze's 4 (CVCV) - the length gap alone is often enough to separate them once you know to check it.

3 ch
hay
4 ch
haze

Visual trap between hay and haze

A purely visual mix-up. hay ([heɪ]) and haze ([heɪz]) 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 82362, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

hay is recorded at frequency rank #32,588, classified as anoun, pronounced [heɪ]. haze is at rank #49,774, tagged as anoun, pronounced [heɪz].

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 82362, this pair ranks #158,676 of 2,006,359 scored German confusable pairs - among the most confusable pairs.

Orthographic DNA of hay vs haze

Shared letters: ah. Private to "hay": y. Private to "haze": ez.

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

Known mistypes of this pair

  • haze ← ahze · haez · hazze · hhaze · hzae

Frequently Asked Questions

Is swapping "hay" for "haze" ever safe?
No. They are said differently ([heɪ] versus [heɪz]) and carry different meanings; reading the sentence aloud is usually enough to catch the wrong one.
Which is more common, "hay" or "haze"?
"hay" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #32,588 in our German list, against #49,774 for "haze". The two are close in frequency, so neither is a safe default; check the meaning rather than guessing.

After this comparison

Eye-level mix-up between "hay" and "haze" is sorted above. Next: full entries or other pairs that share a letter shape.

  • Full dictionary entry for "hay" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "haze" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #158,676 of 2,006,359 scored German confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "hay" and "haze" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "Hähne 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 #158,676 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