Which to use
“hares” and “hides” are a confusable English pair: similar on the page, but distinct in meaning, check the gloss before you choose.
- #37,482
- “hares” frequency rank
- #11,393
- “hides” frequency rank
- 48875
- confusion score
Side-by-Side Comparison
| Feature | hares | hides |
|---|---|---|
| Definition | plural of hare | plural of hide |
Where the eye mixes hares and hides
Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 3 letters in sequence. hares and hides follow the identical consonant-vowel pattern (CVCVC). Same shape at a glance is often the real trap, independent of shared letters.
Why the eye confuses hares with hides
A purely visual mix-up. hares (/hɛɚz/) and hides (/haɪdz/) 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 48875, 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/. hides is at rank #11,393, tagged as anoun, pronounced /haɪdz/.
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 48875, this pair ranks #188,971 of 530,003 scored English confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.
Orthographic DNA of hares vs hides
Shared letters: ehs. Private to "hares": ar. Private to "hides": di.
"hares" · 5 letters · shape CVCVC · "hides" · 5 letters · shape CVCVC
Known mistypes of this pair
Frequently Asked Questions
Can "hares" and "hides" be used interchangeably?
In ordinary English text, does "hares" or "hides" show up more?
After this comparison
Visual near-miss handled. Browse the word pages or a neighbour when the next look-alike shows up.
- Full dictionary entry for "hares" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
- Full dictionary entry for "hides" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
- This pair ranks #188,971 of 530,003 scored English confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
- "hares" and "hides" 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 #188,971 of 530,003 scored English pairs, corpus vintage 2026-09-03, not spelling advice.