hackvshasWhich spelling fits?

Which to use

“hack” and “has” are a confusable English pair: similar on the page, but distinct in meaning, check the gloss before you choose.

#6,578
“hack” frequency rank
#47
“has” frequency rank
6625
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature hack has
Definition To chop or cut down in a rough manner. third-person singular simple present indicative of have

Where the eye mixes hack and has

Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 2 letters in sequence.

4 ch
hack
3 ch
has

Look-alike desk: hack vs has

A purely visual mix-up. hack (/hæk/) and has (/hæz/) are said differently, so reading them aloud is the quickest way to catch the wrong one. On the page they stay close: they differ by 1 letter(s) in length. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 6625, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

hack is recorded at frequency rank #6,578, classified as averb, pronounced /hæk/. has is at rank #47, tagged as averb, pronounced /hæz/.

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 6625, this pair ranks #510,666 of 530,003 scored English confusable pairs - a relatively easy-to-tell-apart pair.

Orthographic DNA of hack vs has

Shared letters: ah. Private to "hack": ck. Private to "has": s.

"hack" · 4 letters · shape CVCC  ·  "has" · 3 letters · shape CVC

Known mistypes of this pair

  • hackahck · hacck · hackk · hakc · hcak · hhack

Frequently Asked Questions

Do "hack" and "has" mean the same thing in a sentence?
No. They are said differently (/hæk/ versus /hæz/) and carry different meanings; reading the sentence aloud is usually enough to catch the wrong one.
Frequency check: "hack" vs "has" - which ranks higher?
"has" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #47 in our English list, against #6,578 for "hack". That is a wide gap, so in ordinary text the rarer spelling is the one worth double-checking.

What to do next

Visual near-miss handled. Browse the word pages or a neighbour when the next look-alike shows up.

  • Full dictionary entry for "hack" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "has" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #510,666 of 530,003 scored English confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "hack" and "has" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "hack vs hic". 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 #510,666 of 530,003 scored English pairs, corpus vintage 2026-09-03, not spelling advice.

Source: Wiktionary (via kaikki.org) Structured Wiktionary extract

Source: FrequencyWords open word-frequency list