Which to use
“harm” and “hay” are a confusable English pair: similar on the page, but distinct in meaning, check the gloss before you choose.
- #3,169
- “harm” frequency rank
- #8,152
- “hay” frequency rank
- 11321
- confusion score
Side-by-Side Comparison
| Feature | harm | hay |
|---|---|---|
| Definition | Physical injury; hurt; damage. | Grass cut and dried for use as animal fodder. |
Where the eye mixes harm and hay
Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 2 letters in sequence.
Visual trap between harm and hay
A purely visual mix-up. harm (/hɑːm/) and hay (/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 11321, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.
harm is recorded at frequency rank #3,169, classified as anoun, pronounced /hɑːm/. hay is at rank #8,152, 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 11321, this pair ranks #487,697 of 530,003 scored English confusable pairs - a relatively easy-to-tell-apart pair.
Orthographic DNA of harm vs hay
Shared letters: ah. Private to "harm": mr. Private to "hay": y.
"harm" · 4 letters · shape CVCC · "hay" · 3 letters · shape CVV
Known mistypes of this pair
- harm ← ahrm · hamr · harmm · harrm · hharm · hram
Frequently Asked Questions
Is swapping "harm" for "hay" ever safe?
Which is more common, "harm" or "hay"?
What to do next
Visual near-miss handled. Browse the word pages or a neighbour when the next look-alike shows up.
- Full dictionary entry for "harm" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
- Full dictionary entry for "hay" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
- This pair ranks #487,697 of 530,003 scored English confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
- "harm" and "hay" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "hammy vs hay". 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 #487,697 of 530,003 scored English pairs, corpus vintage 2026-09-03, not spelling advice.