h vs hic, What's the Difference?

Which to use

“h” is a character and “hic” is an intj - they look or sound alike but fill different roles in a sentence.

#926
“h” frequency rank: #49,392
“hic” frequency rank: 50318
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature	h	hic
Definition	The eighth letter of the English alphabet, called aitch and written in the Latin script.	An approximation to the sound of a hiccup, used e.g. to indicate drunkenness.

Where the eye mixes h and hic

Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 1 letter in sequence.

1 ch

3 ch

hic

Look-alike desk: h vs hic

These two trip readers on the page rather than in the ear: h is /eɪt͡ʃ/ while hic is /hɪk/. Spoken aloud the problem disappears. In writing it persists, because they differ by 2 extra letter(s) - “h” sits inside “hic”, and the parts of speech differ too (character vs intj), which is usually the fastest check. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 50318, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

h is recorded at frequency rank #926, classified as acharacter, pronounced /eɪt͡ʃ/. hic is at rank #49,392, tagged as anintj, pronounced /hɪk/.

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 50318, this pair ranks #175,383 of 530,003 scored English confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.

Orthographic DNA of h vs hic

Shared letters: h. Private to "h": -. Private to "hic": ci.

"h" · 1 letters · shape C · "hic" · 3 letters · shape CVC

Frequently Asked Questions

Can "h" and "hic" be used interchangeably?

No - they are not even the same part of speech. "h" is a character and "hic" an intj, so a sentence built for one is usually ungrammatical with the other.

Which is more common, "h" or "hic"?

"h" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #926 in our English list, against #49,392 for "hic". That is a wide gap, so in ordinary text the rarer spelling is the one worth double-checking.

What to do next

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

Full dictionary entry for "h" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
Full dictionary entry for "hic" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
This pair ranks #175,383 of 530,003 scored English confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
"h" and "hic" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "hic vs HIIT". Nearby pair

Confusion rank #175,383 of 530,003 scored English pairs, corpus vintage 2026-09-03, not spelling advice.