HamervshatesTell them apart

Quick tell: Hamer is a name, hates is a noun, so they fill different roles in a sentence.

Which to use

“Hamer” is a name and “hates” is a noun - they look or sound alike but fill different roles in a sentence.

#47,086
“Hamer” frequency rank
#5,601
“hates” frequency rank
52687
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature Hamer hates
Definition A surname. plural of hate

Where the eye mixes Hamer and hates

Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 3 letters in sequence.

5 ch
Hamer
5 ch
hates

Visual trap between Hamer and hates

These two trip readers on the page rather than in the ear: Hamer is /ˈheɪmər/ while hates is /heɪts/. Spoken aloud the problem disappears. In writing it persists, because they share most of their letters but differ in 2 positions, and the parts of speech differ too (name vs noun), which is usually the fastest check. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 52687, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

Hamer is recorded at frequency rank #47,086, classified as aname, pronounced /ˈheɪmər/. hates is at rank #5,601, tagged as anoun, pronounced /heɪts/.

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 52687, this pair ranks #155,004 of 530,003 scored English confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.

Orthographic DNA of Hamer vs hates

Shared letters: aeh. Private to "Hamer": mr. Private to "hates": st.

"Hamer" · 5 letters · shape CVCVC  ·  "hates" · 5 letters · shape CVCVC

Known mistypes of this pair

  • Hamerahmer · haemr · hamerr · hamre · hhamer · hmaer
  • hatesahtes · haets · hatess · hatse · hattes · hhates · htaes

Frequently Asked Questions

Is swapping "Hamer" for "hates" ever safe?
No - they are not even the same part of speech. "Hamer" is a name and "hates" a noun, so a sentence built for one is usually ungrammatical with the other.
In ordinary English text, does "Hamer" or "hates" show up more?
"hates" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #5,601 in our English list, against #47,086 for "Hamer". The two are close in frequency, so neither is a safe default; check the meaning rather than guessing.

What to do next

Pronunciation already separates them, if the page still looks alike, the dictionary links below settle it.

  • Full dictionary entry for "Hamer" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "hates" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #155,004 of 530,003 scored English confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "Hamer" and "hates" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "Hamer vs hammy". 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 #155,004 of 530,003 scored English pairs, corpus vintage 2026-09-03, not spelling advice.

Source: Wiktionary (via kaikki.org) Structured Wiktionary extract

Source: FrequencyWords open word-frequency list