English homophones

hair/hare

"hair" (#876 written frequency) beats "hare" (#11,895) in this 2-word /hɛə/ cluster. Size rank #133 of 1,007 English groups.

Data vintage 2026-09-03

Frequency splits the cluster

These 2 spellings keep the same /hɛə/ reading, but written frequency splits them hard: "hair" leads at #876, with "hare" trailing at #11,895.

Shared letters across hair, hare: ahr. Private letters are the ones only one spelling owns: the eye's fastest tell once sound is out of the picture.

Write "hair" when you mean: A pigmented filament of keratin which grows from a follicle on the skin of humans and other mammals.
Write "hare" when you mean: Any of several plant-eating mammals of the genus Lepus, similar to a rabbit, but larger and with longer ears.

Edit-distance variants recorded against this cluster: useful when a search or OCR feed lands on the wrong form.

noun · /hɛə/ · #876 frequency

A pigmented filament of keratin which grows from a follicle on the skin of humans and other mammals.

noun · /hɛə/ · #11,895 frequency

Any of several plant-eating mammals of the genus Lepus, similar to a rabbit, but larger and with longer ears.

What to do next

You've reviewed the 2-spelling cluster (hair, hare). Here's where to go from here.

"hair" is the most frequent headword in this 2-spelling cluster (rank #876 in English). Full entry
Among English homophone groups, a cluster of 2 spellings ranks #133 by size (1,007 groups in this vintage). Corpus statistics
Explore a nearby 2-spelling cluster: hough · hock. Nearby cluster
Each spelling in "hair, hare" has its own headword page with definition, IPA, and misspelling variants. First entry

PlainSpell is a reference corpus, not spelling advice. Verify unusual forms in context.