Which to use
“hares” and “hazel” are a confusable English pair: similar on the page, but distinct in meaning, check the gloss before you choose.
- #37,482
- “hares” frequency rank
- #14,133
- “hazel” frequency rank
- 51615
- confusion score
Side-by-Side Comparison
| Feature | hares | hazel |
|---|---|---|
| Definition | plural of hare | A tree or shrub of the genus Corylus, bearing edible nuts called hazelnuts or filberts. |
Where the eye mixes hares and hazel
Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 3 letters in sequence. hares and hazel follow the identical consonant-vowel pattern (CVCVC). Same shape at a glance is often the real trap, independent of shared letters.
Visual trap between hares and hazel
A purely visual mix-up. hares (/hɛɚz/) and hazel (/ˈheɪzəl/) are said differently, so reading them aloud is the quickest way to catch the wrong one. On the page they stay close: they share most of their letters but differ in 2 positions. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 51615, 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/. hazel is at rank #14,133, tagged as anoun, pronounced /ˈheɪzəl/.
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 51615, this pair ranks #163,988 of 530,003 scored English confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.
Orthographic DNA of hares vs hazel
Shared letters: aeh. Private to "hares": rs. Private to "hazel": lz.
"hares" · 5 letters · shape CVCVC · "hazel" · 5 letters · shape CVCVC
Known mistypes of this pair
Frequently Asked Questions
Can "hares" and "hazel" be used interchangeably?
Frequency check: "hares" vs "hazel" - which ranks higher?
What to do next
Eye-level mix-up between "hares" and "hazel" 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 "hazel" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
- This pair ranks #163,988 of 530,003 scored English confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
- "hares" and "hazel" 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 #163,988 of 530,003 scored English pairs, corpus vintage 2026-09-03, not spelling advice.