Which to use
“hail” and “ham” are a confusable English pair: similar on the page, but distinct in meaning, check the gloss before you choose.
- #8,042
- “hail” frequency rank
- #5,885
- “ham” frequency rank
- 13927
- confusion score
Side-by-Side Comparison
| Feature | hail | ham |
|---|---|---|
| Definition | Balls or pieces of ice falling as precipitation, often in connection with a thunderstorm. | The region back of the knee joint; the popliteal space; the hock. |
Where the eye mixes hail and ham
Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 2 letters in sequence.
Look-alike desk: hail vs ham
A purely visual mix-up. hail (/heɪl/) and ham (/ˈhæm/) 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 13927, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.
hail is recorded at frequency rank #8,042, classified as anoun, pronounced /heɪl/. ham is at rank #5,885, tagged as anoun, pronounced /ˈhæm/.
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 13927, this pair ranks #473,059 of 530,003 scored English confusable pairs - a relatively easy-to-tell-apart pair.
Orthographic DNA of hail vs ham
Shared letters: ah. Private to "hail": il. Private to "ham": m.
"hail" · 4 letters · shape CVVC · "ham" · 3 letters · shape CVC
Known mistypes of this pair
- hail ← ahil · haill · hali · hhail · hial
Frequently Asked Questions
Is swapping "hail" for "ham" ever safe?
Frequency check: "hail" vs "ham" - which ranks higher?
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 "hail" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
- Full dictionary entry for "ham" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
- This pair ranks #473,059 of 530,003 scored English confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
- "hail" and "ham" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "hail vs HIIT". 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 #473,059 of 530,003 scored English pairs, corpus vintage 2026-09-03, not spelling advice.