Which to use
“harden” is a verb and “hares” is a noun - they look or sound alike but fill different roles in a sentence.
- #14,554
- “harden” frequency rank
- #37,482
- “hares” frequency rank
- 52036
- confusion score
Side-by-Side Comparison
| Feature | harden | hares |
|---|---|---|
| Definition | To become hard. | plural of hare |
Where the eye mixes harden and hares
Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 4 letters in sequence. harden runs 6 letters (CVCCVC) against hares's 5 (CVCVC) - the length gap alone is often enough to separate them once you know to check it.
Why the eye confuses harden with hares
These two trip readers on the page rather than in the ear: harden is /ˈhɑɹdn̩/ while hares is /hɛɚz/. Spoken aloud the problem disappears. In writing it persists, because they differ by 1 letter(s) in length, and the parts of speech differ too (verb vs noun), which is usually the fastest check. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 52036, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.
harden is recorded at frequency rank #14,554, classified as averb, pronounced /ˈhɑɹdn̩/. hares is at rank #37,482, tagged as anoun, pronounced /hɛɚz/.
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 52036, this pair ranks #160,399 of 530,003 scored English confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.
Orthographic DNA of harden vs hares
Shared letters: aehr. Private to "harden": dn. Private to "hares": s.
"harden" · 6 letters · shape CVCCVC · "hares" · 5 letters · shape CVCVC
Known mistypes of this pair
Frequently Asked Questions
Is swapping "harden" for "hares" ever safe?
Frequency check: "harden" vs "hares" - which ranks higher?
Useful next steps
Eye-level mix-up between "harden" and "hares" is sorted above. Next: full entries or other pairs that share a letter shape.
- Full dictionary entry for "harden" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
- Full dictionary entry for "hares" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
- This pair ranks #160,399 of 530,003 scored English confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
- "harden" and "hares" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "hares vs Hoare". 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 #160,399 of 530,003 scored English pairs, corpus vintage 2026-09-03, not spelling advice.