Which to use
“hand” is a noun and “hard” is an adjective - they look or sound alike but fill different roles in a sentence.
- #375
- “hand” frequency rank
- #273
- “hard” frequency rank
- 648
- confusion score
Side-by-Side Comparison
| Feature | hand | hard |
|---|---|---|
| Definition | The part of the forelimb below the forearm or wrist in a human, and the corresponding part in many other animals. | Solid and firm. |
Where the eye mixes hand and hard
Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 3 letters in sequence.
Spelling & Dictionary Insight
These two trip readers on the page rather than in the ear: hand is /ˈhænd/ while hard is /hɑːd/. Spoken aloud the problem disappears. In writing it persists, because they differ by a single letter - n in “hand” becomes r in “hard”, and the parts of speech differ too (noun vs adjective), which is usually the fastest check. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 648, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.
hand is recorded at frequency rank #375, classified as anoun, pronounced /ˈhænd/. hard is at rank #273, tagged as anadj, pronounced /hɑːd/.
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 648, this pair ranks #529,054 of 530,003 scored English confusable pairs - a relatively easy-to-tell-apart pair.
Orthographic DNA of hand vs hard
Shared letters: adh. Private to "hand": n. Private to "hard": r.
"hand" · 4 letters · shape CVCC · "hard" · 4 letters · shape CVCC