Which to use
“had” is a verb and “hazy” is an adjective - they look or sound alike but fill different roles in a sentence.
- #54
- “had” frequency rank
- #24,184
- “hazy” frequency rank
- 24238
- confusion score
Side-by-Side Comparison
| Feature | had | hazy |
|---|---|---|
| Definition | simple past and past participle of have | Thick or obscured with haze. |
Where the eye mixes had and hazy
Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 2 letters in sequence.
Look-alike desk: had vs hazy
These two trip readers on the page rather than in the ear: had is /hæd/ while hazy is /ˈheɪzi/. Spoken aloud the problem disappears. In writing it persists, because they differ by 1 letter(s) in length, and the parts of speech differ too (verb vs adjective), which is usually the fastest check. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 24238, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.
had is recorded at frequency rank #54, classified as averb, pronounced /hæd/. hazy is at rank #24,184, tagged as anadj, pronounced /ˈheɪzi/.
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 24238, this pair ranks #403,452 of 530,003 scored English confusable pairs - a relatively easy-to-tell-apart pair.
Orthographic DNA of had vs hazy
Shared letters: ah. Private to "had": d. Private to "hazy": yz.
"had" · 3 letters · shape CVC · "hazy" · 4 letters · shape CVCV
Known mistypes of this pair
- hazy ← ahzy · hayz · hazyy · hazzy · hhazy · hzay
Frequently Asked Questions
Is swapping "had" for "hazy" ever safe?
Which is more common, "had" or "hazy"?
After this comparison
Eye-level mix-up between "had" and "hazy" is sorted above. Next: full entries or other pairs that share a letter shape.
- Full dictionary entry for "had" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
- Full dictionary entry for "hazy" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
- This pair ranks #403,452 of 530,003 scored English confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
- "had" and "hazy" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "hammy vs hazy". 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 #403,452 of 530,003 scored English pairs, corpus vintage 2026-09-03, not spelling advice.