haresvshateTell them apart

Which to use

“hares” and “hate” are a confusable English pair: similar on the page, but distinct in meaning, check the gloss before you choose.

#37,482
“hares” frequency rank
#807
“hate” frequency rank
38289
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature hares hate
Definition plural of hare An object of hatred.

Where the eye mixes hares and hate

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

5 ch
hares
4 ch
hate

Why the eye confuses hares with hate

A purely visual mix-up. hares (/hɛɚz/) and hate (/heʔ/) are said differently, so reading them aloud is the quickest way to catch the wrong one. On the page they stay close: they differ by 1 letter(s) in length. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 38289, 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/. hate is at rank #807, tagged as anoun, pronounced /heʔ/.

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 38289, this pair ranks #287,241 of 530,003 scored English confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.

Orthographic DNA of hares vs hate

Shared letters: aeh. Private to "hares": rs. Private to "hate": t.

"hares" · 5 letters · shape CVCVC  ·  "hate" · 4 letters · shape CVCV

Known mistypes of this pair

  • haresahres · haress · harres · harse · hhares · hraes
  • hateahte · haet · hatte · hhate · htae

Frequently Asked Questions

Can "hares" and "hate" be used interchangeably?
No. They are said differently (/hɛɚz/ versus /heʔ/) and carry different meanings; reading the sentence aloud is usually enough to catch the wrong one.
Frequency check: "hares" vs "hate" - which ranks higher?
"hate" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #807 in our English list, against #37,482 for "hares". That is a wide gap, so in ordinary text the rarer spelling is the one worth double-checking.

After this comparison

Eye-level mix-up between "hares" and "hate" 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 "hate" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #287,241 of 530,003 scored English confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "hares" and "hate" 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 #287,241 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