HorbvshourTell them apart

Quick tell: Horb is a name, hour is a noun, so they fill different roles in a sentence.

Which to use

“Horb” is a name and “hour” is a noun - they look or sound alike but fill different roles in a sentence.

#36,405
“Horb” frequency rank
#18,576
“hour” frequency rank
54981
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature Horb hour
Definition eine Stadt in Baden-Württemberg, Deutschland Stunde

Where the eye mixes Horb and hour

Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 3 letters in sequence.

4 ch
Horb
4 ch
hour

Look-alike desk: Horb vs hour

These two trip readers on the page rather than in the ear: Horb is [hɔʁp] while hour is [aʊə(ɹ)]. Spoken aloud the problem disappears. In writing it persists, because they share most of their letters but differ in 2 positions, and the parts of speech differ too (name vs noun), which is usually the fastest check. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 54981, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

Horb is recorded at frequency rank #36,405, classified as aname, pronounced [hɔʁp]. hour is at rank #18,576, tagged as anoun, pronounced [aʊə(ɹ)].

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 54981, this pair ranks #997,358 of 2,006,359 scored German confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.

Orthographic DNA of Horb vs hour

Shared letters: hor. Private to "Horb": b. Private to "hour": u.

"Horb" · 4 letters · shape CVCC  ·  "hour" · 4 letters · shape CVVC

Known mistypes of this pair

  • Horbhhorb · hobr · horbb · horrb · hrob · ohrb
  • hourhhour · horu · hourr · huor · ohur

Frequently Asked Questions

Can "Horb" and "hour" be used interchangeably?
No - they are not even the same part of speech. "Horb" is a name and "hour" a noun, so a sentence built for one is usually ungrammatical with the other.
In ordinary German text, does "Horb" or "hour" show up more?
"hour" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #18,576 in our German list, against #36,405 for "Horb". The two are close in frequency, so neither is a safe default; check the meaning rather than guessing.

What to do next

Pronunciation already separates them, if the page still looks alike, the dictionary links below settle it.

  • Full dictionary entry for "Horb" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "hour" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #997,358 of 2,006,359 scored German confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "Horb" and "hour" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "höh vs Horb". 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 #997,358 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