HobbitvshobbyWhich spelling fits?

Which to use

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

#24,770
“Hobbit” frequency rank
#4,358
“hobby” frequency rank
29128
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature Hobbit hobby
Definition kleine, humanoide, intelligente Kreatur, die bevorzugt in Erdhöhlen wohnt eine Tätigkeit, der man sich nicht aus Notwendigkeit, sondern freiwillig und aus Interesse, Faszination oder sogar Leidenschaft unterzieht und Vergnügen, Spaß oder Lustgewinn mit sich bringt

Where the eye mixes Hobbit and hobby

Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 4 letters in sequence.

6 ch
Hobbit
5 ch
hobby

Visual trap between Hobbit and hobby

A purely visual mix-up. Hobbit ([ˈhɔbɪt]) and hobby ([ˈhɒbi]) 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 29128, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

Hobbit is recorded at frequency rank #24,770, classified as anoun, pronounced [ˈhɔbɪt]. hobby is at rank #4,358, tagged as anoun, pronounced [ˈhɒbi].

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 29128, this pair ranks #1,772,502 of 2,006,359 scored German confusable pairs - a relatively easy-to-tell-apart pair.

Orthographic DNA of Hobbit vs hobby

Shared letters: bho. Private to "Hobbit": it. Private to "hobby": y.

"Hobbit" · 6 letters · shape CVCCVC  ·  "hobby" · 5 letters · shape CVCCV

Known mistypes of this pair

  • Hobbithbobit · hhobbit · hobbitt · hobbti · hobibt · hobit · ohbbit
  • hobbyhboby · hhobby · hobbyy · hoby · hobyb · ohbby

Frequently Asked Questions

Is swapping "Hobbit" for "hobby" ever safe?
No. They are said differently ([ˈhɔbɪt] versus [ˈhɒbi]) and carry different meanings; reading the sentence aloud is usually enough to catch the wrong one.
Which is more common, "Hobbit" or "hobby"?
"hobby" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #4,358 in our German list, against #24,770 for "Hobbit". The two are close in frequency, so neither is a safe default; check the meaning rather than guessing.

Useful next steps

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

  • Full dictionary entry for "Hobbit" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "hobby" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #1,772,502 of 2,006,359 scored German confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "Hobbit" and "hobby" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "hobbies vs Hobbit". 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 #1,772,502 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