Which to use
“hail” is a noun and “hic” is an intj - they look or sound alike but fill different roles in a sentence.
- #8,042
- “hail” frequency rank
- #49,392
- “hic” frequency rank
- 57434
- confusion score
Side-by-Side Comparison
| Feature | hail | hic |
|---|---|---|
| Definition | Balls or pieces of ice falling as precipitation, often in connection with a thunderstorm. | An approximation to the sound of a hiccup, used e.g. to indicate drunkenness. |
Where the eye mixes hail and hic
Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 2 letters in sequence. hail runs 4 letters (CVVC) against hic's 3 (CVC) - the length gap alone is often enough to separate them once you know to check it.
Why the eye confuses hail with hic
These two trip readers on the page rather than in the ear: hail is /heɪl/ while hic is /hɪk/. 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 (noun vs intj), which is usually the fastest check. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 57434, 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/. 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 57434, this pair ranks #119,319 of 530,003 scored English confusable pairs - among the most confusable pairs.
Orthographic DNA of hail vs hic
Shared letters: hi. Private to "hail": al. Private to "hic": c.
"hail" · 4 letters · shape CVVC · "hic" · 3 letters · shape CVC
Known mistypes of this pair
- hail ← ahil · haill · hali · hhail · hial
Frequently Asked Questions
Do "hail" and "hic" mean the same thing in a sentence?
Which is more common, "hail" or "hic"?
What to do next
Eye-level mix-up between "hail" and "hic" is sorted above. Next: full entries or other pairs that share a letter shape.
- Full dictionary entry for "hail" 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 #119,319 of 530,003 scored English confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
- "hail" and "hic" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "hic 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 #119,319 of 530,003 scored English pairs, corpus vintage 2026-09-03, not spelling advice.