horsevsHülseWhich spelling fits?

Which to use

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

#24,773
“horse” frequency rank
#42,585
“Hülse” frequency rank
67358
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature horse Hülse
Definition Hauspferd feste und meist längliche Hülle, in die etwas hineingesteckt werden kann

Where the eye mixes horse and Hülse

Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 3 letters in sequence. horse and Hülse follow the identical consonant-vowel pattern (CVCCV). Same shape at a glance is often the real trap, independent of shared letters.

5 ch
horse
5 ch
Hülse

Visual trap between horse and Hülse

A purely visual mix-up. horse ([hɔː(r)s]) and Hülse ([ˈhʏlzə]) are said differently, so reading them aloud is the quickest way to catch the wrong one. On the page they stay close: they share most of their letters but differ in 2 positions. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 67358, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

horse is recorded at frequency rank #24,773, classified as anoun, pronounced [hɔː(r)s]. Hülse is at rank #42,585, tagged as anoun, pronounced [ˈhʏlzə].

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 67358, this pair ranks #542,770 of 2,006,359 scored German confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.

Orthographic DNA of horse vs Hülse

Shared letters: ehs. Private to "horse": or. Private to "Hülse": lü.

"horse" · 5 letters · shape CVCCV  ·  "Hülse" · 5 letters · shape CVCCV

Known mistypes of this pair

  • horse ← hhorse · hores · horrse · horsse · hosre · hrose · ohrse

Frequently Asked Questions

Is swapping "horse" for "Hülse" ever safe?
No. They are said differently ([hɔː(r)s] versus [ˈhʏlzə]) and carry different meanings; reading the sentence aloud is usually enough to catch the wrong one.
Which is more common, "horse" or "Hülse"?
"horse" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #24,773 in our German list, against #42,585 for "Hülse". 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 "horse" and "Hülse" is sorted above. Next: full entries or other pairs that share a letter shape.

  • Full dictionary entry for "horse" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "Hülse" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #542,770 of 2,006,359 scored German confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "horse" and "Hülse" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "holde vs Hülse". 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 #542,770 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