English homophones
hock/hough
"hough" (#29,686 written frequency) beats "hock" (#35,339) in this 2-word /hɒk/ cluster. Size rank #133 of 1,007 English groups.
Data vintage
Frequency splits the cluster
These 2 spellings keep the same /hɒk/ reading, but written frequency splits them hard: "hough" leads at #29,686, with "hock" trailing at #35,339.
Spelling pairs in this cluster
- Shared stem "ho" then splits - "hock" (4 letters) vs "hough" (5).
Orthographic DNA of this cluster
Shared letters across hock, hough: ho. Private letters are the ones only one spelling owns: the eye's fastest tell once sound is out of the picture.
hock
4 letters · 1 vowels · shape CVCC
Inventory chko · private ck
hough
5 letters · 2 vowels · shape CVVCC
Inventory ghou · private gu
Pick the spelling from the meaning
- Write "hock" when you mean: A Rhenish wine, of a light yellow color, either sparkling or still, from the Hochheim region; often applied to all Rhenish wines.
- Write "hough" when you mean: Alternative form of hock (“the hollow behind the knee”).
Known mistypes of these spellings
Edit-distance variants recorded against this cluster: useful when a search or OCR feed lands on the wrong form.
Each spelling
Nearby English homophone groups
What to do next
You've reviewed the 2-spelling cluster (hock, hough). Here's where to go from here.
- "hough" is the most frequent headword in this 2-spelling cluster (rank #29,686 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: whore · haw. Nearby cluster
- Each spelling in "hock, hough" 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.