Which to use
“hares” is a noun and “harmed” is a verb - they look or sound alike but fill different roles in a sentence.
- #37,482
- “hares” frequency rank
- #15,422
- “harmed” frequency rank
- 52904
- confusion score
Side-by-Side Comparison
| Feature | hares | harmed |
|---|---|---|
| Definition | plural of hare | simple past and past participle of harm |
Where the eye mixes hares and harmed
Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 4 letters in sequence. hares runs 5 letters (CVCVC) against harmed's 6 (CVCCVC) - the length gap alone is often enough to separate them once you know to check it.
Look-alike desk: hares vs harmed
These two trip readers on the page rather than in the ear: hares is /hɛɚz/ while harmed is /hɑɹmd/. 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 (noun vs verb), which is usually the fastest check. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 52904, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.
hares is recorded at frequency rank #37,482, classified as anoun, pronounced /hɛɚz/. harmed is at rank #15,422, tagged as averb, pronounced /hɑɹmd/.
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 52904, this pair ranks #153,214 of 530,003 scored English confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.
Orthographic DNA of hares vs harmed
Shared letters: aehr. Private to "hares": s. Private to "harmed": dm.
"hares" · 5 letters · shape CVCVC · "harmed" · 6 letters · shape CVCCVC
Known mistypes of this pair
Frequently Asked Questions
Is swapping "hares" for "harmed" ever safe?
In ordinary English text, does "hares" or "harmed" show up more?
What to do next
Eye-level mix-up between "hares" and "harmed" is sorted above. Next: full entries or other pairs that share a letter shape.
- Full dictionary entry for "hares" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
- Full dictionary entry for "harmed" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
- This pair ranks #153,214 of 530,003 scored English confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
- "hares" and "harmed" 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 #153,214 of 530,003 scored English pairs, corpus vintage 2026-09-03, not spelling advice.