HöhevshonConfusable pair

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

Which to use

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

#717
“Höhe” frequency rank
#40,001
“hon” frequency rank
40718
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature Höhe hon
Definition die Dimension (Größe) nach oben 2. Person Singular Imperativ Präsens Aktiv des Verbs honen

Where the eye mixes Höhe and hon

Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 1 letter in sequence. Höhe runs 4 letters (CVCV) against hon's 3 (CVC) - the length gap alone is often enough to separate them once you know to check it.

4 ch
Höhe
3 ch
hon

Visual trap between Höhe and hon

These two trip readers on the page rather than in the ear: Höhe is [ˈhøːə] while hon is [hoːn]. Spoken aloud the problem disappears. In writing it persists, because they differ by 1 letter(s) in length, and the parts of speech differ too (noun vs verb), which is usually the fastest check. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 40718, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

Höhe is recorded at frequency rank #717, classified as anoun, pronounced [ˈhøːə]. hon is at rank #40,001, tagged as averb, pronounced [hoːn].

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 40718, this pair ranks #1,500,400 of 2,006,359 scored German confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.

Orthographic DNA of Höhe vs hon

Shared letters: h. Private to "Höhe": eö. Private to "hon": no.

"Höhe" · 4 letters · shape CVCV  ·  "hon" · 3 letters · shape CVC

Frequently Asked Questions

Is swapping "Höhe" for "hon" ever safe?
No - they are not even the same part of speech. "Höhe" is a noun and "hon" a verb, so a sentence built for one is usually ungrammatical with the other.
In ordinary German text, does "Höhe" or "hon" show up more?
"Höhe" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #717 in our German list, against #40,001 for "hon". That is a wide gap, so in ordinary text the rarer spelling is the one worth double-checking.

Useful next steps

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

  • Full dictionary entry for "Höhe" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "hon" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #1,500,400 of 2,006,359 scored German confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "Höhe" and "hon" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "höh vs hon". Nearby pair

Confusion rank #1,500,400 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