Which to use
“hares” and “haye” are a confusable English pair: similar on the page, but distinct in meaning, check the gloss before you choose.
- #37,482
- “hares” frequency rank
- #44,832
- “haye” frequency rank
- 82314
- confusion score
Side-by-Side Comparison
| Feature | hares | haye |
|---|---|---|
| Definition | plural of hare | A shark (scaleless cartilaginous fish). |
Where the eye mixes hares and haye
Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 3 letters in sequence. hares runs 5 letters (CVCVC) against haye's 4 (CVVV) - the length gap alone is often enough to separate them once you know to check it.
Why the eye confuses hares with haye
A purely visual mix-up. hares (/hɛɚz/) and haye (/heɪ/) 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 82314, 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/. haye is at rank #44,832, tagged as anoun, pronounced /heɪ/.
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 82314, this pair ranks #15,940 of 530,003 scored English confusable pairs - among the most confusable pairs.
Orthographic DNA of hares vs haye
Shared letters: aeh. Private to "hares": rs. Private to "haye": y.
"hares" · 5 letters · shape CVCVC · "haye" · 4 letters · shape CVVV
Known mistypes of this pair
Frequently Asked Questions
Is swapping "hares" for "haye" ever safe?
Which is more common, "hares" or "haye"?
Useful next steps
Eye-level mix-up between "hares" and "haye" 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 "haye" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
- This pair ranks #15,940 of 530,003 scored English confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
- "hares" and "haye" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "haye vs hoke". 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 #15,940 of 530,003 scored English pairs, corpus vintage 2026-09-03, not spelling advice.