Which to use
“hair” and “hire” are a confusable English pair: similar on the page, but distinct in meaning, check the gloss before you choose.
- #876
- “hair” frequency rank
- #3,628
- “hire” frequency rank
- 4504
- confusion score
Side-by-Side Comparison
| Feature | hair | hire |
|---|---|---|
| Definition | A pigmented filament of keratin which grows from a follicle on the skin of humans and other mammals. | A person who has been hired, especially in a cohort. |
Where the eye mixes hair and hire
Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 3 letters in sequence.
Spelling & Dictionary Insight
A purely visual mix-up. hair (/hɛə/) and hire (/ˈhaɪ(.)ə/) 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 3 positions. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 4504, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.
hair is recorded at frequency rank #876, classified as anoun, pronounced /hɛə/. hire is at rank #3,628, tagged as anoun, pronounced /ˈhaɪ(.)ə/.
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 4504, this pair ranks #518,701 of 530,003 scored English confusable pairs - a relatively easy-to-tell-apart pair.
Orthographic DNA of hair vs hire
Shared letters: hir. Private to "hair": a. Private to "hire": e.
"hair" · 4 letters · shape CVVC · "hire" · 4 letters · shape CVCV