Which to use
“hair” and “half” are a confusable English pair: similar on the page, but distinct in meaning, check the gloss before you choose.
- #876
- “hair” frequency rank
- #374
- “half” frequency rank
- 1250
- confusion score
Side-by-Side Comparison
| Feature | hair | half |
|---|---|---|
| Definition | A pigmented filament of keratin which grows from a follicle on the skin of humans and other mammals. | One of two usually roughly equal parts into which anything may be divided, or considered as divided. |
Where the eye mixes hair and half
Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 2 letters in sequence.
Spelling & Dictionary Insight
A purely visual mix-up. hair (/hɛə/) and half (/hɑːf/) are said differently, so reading them aloud is the quickest way to catch the wrong one. On the page they stay close: they share most of their letters but differ in 2 positions. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 1250, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.
hair is recorded at frequency rank #876, classified as anoun, pronounced /hɛə/. half is at rank #374, tagged as anoun, pronounced /hɑːf/.
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 1250, this pair ranks #527,792 of 530,003 scored English confusable pairs - a relatively easy-to-tell-apart pair.
Orthographic DNA of hair vs half
Shared letters: ah. Private to "hair": ir. Private to "half": fl.
"hair" · 4 letters · shape CVVC · "half" · 4 letters · shape CVCC