Which to use
“halts” and “hints” are a confusable English pair: similar on the page, but distinct in meaning, check the gloss before you choose.
- #34,512
- “halts” frequency rank
- #8,944
- “hints” frequency rank
- 43456
- confusion score
Side-by-Side Comparison
| Feature | halts | hints |
|---|---|---|
| Definition | plural of halt | plural of hint |
Where the eye mixes halts and hints
Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 3 letters in sequence.
Why the eye confuses halts with hints
A purely visual mix-up. halts (/hɒlts/) and hints (/hɪnts/) 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 43456, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.
halts is recorded at frequency rank #34,512, classified as anoun, pronounced /hɒlts/. hints is at rank #8,944, tagged as anoun, pronounced /hɪnts/.
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 43456, this pair ranks #239,820 of 530,003 scored English confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.
Orthographic DNA of halts vs hints
Shared letters: hst. Private to "halts": al. Private to "hints": in.
"halts" · 5 letters · shape CVCCC · "hints" · 5 letters · shape CVCCC
Known mistypes of this pair
Frequently Asked Questions
Do "halts" and "hints" mean the same thing in a sentence?
Which is more common, "halts" or "hints"?
After this comparison
Eye-level mix-up between "halts" and "hints" is sorted above. Next: full entries or other pairs that share a letter shape.
- Full dictionary entry for "halts" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
- Full dictionary entry for "hints" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
- This pair ranks #239,820 of 530,003 scored English confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
- "halts" and "hints" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "halts vs hasta". 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 #239,820 of 530,003 scored English pairs, corpus vintage 2026-09-03, not spelling advice.