Which to use
“hag” is a noun and “her” is a determiner - they look or sound alike but fill different roles in a sentence.
- #30,075
- “hag” frequency rank
- #58
- “her” frequency rank
- 30133
- confusion score
Side-by-Side Comparison
| Feature | hag | her |
|---|---|---|
| Definition | A witch, sorceress, or enchantress; a female wizard. | Belonging to her (belonging to that female person or animal, or in poetic or old-fashioned language that ship, city, season, etc). |
Where the eye mixes hag and her
Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 1 letter in sequence.
Visual trap between hag and her
These two trip readers on the page rather than in the ear: hag is /ˈhæɡ/ while her is /ˈhɜː/. Spoken aloud the problem disappears. In writing it persists, because they share most of their letters but differ in 2 positions, and the parts of speech differ too (noun vs determiner), which is usually the fastest check. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 30133, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.
hag is recorded at frequency rank #30,075, classified as anoun, pronounced /ˈhæɡ/. her is at rank #58, tagged as adet, pronounced /ˈhɜː/.
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 30133, this pair ranks #357,082 of 530,003 scored English confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.
Orthographic DNA of hag vs her
Shared letters: h. Private to "hag": ag. Private to "her": er.
"hag" · 3 letters · shape CVC · "her" · 3 letters · shape CVC
Frequently Asked Questions
Is swapping "hag" for "her" ever safe?
In ordinary English text, does "hag" or "her" show up more?
After this comparison
Visual near-miss handled. Browse the word pages or a neighbour when the next look-alike shows up.
- Full dictionary entry for "hag" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
- Full dictionary entry for "her" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
- This pair ranks #357,082 of 530,003 scored English confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
- "hag" and "her" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "hag vs HRW". Nearby pair
Confusion rank #357,082 of 530,003 scored English pairs, corpus vintage 2026-09-03, not spelling advice.