Which to use
“harm” and “hum” are a confusable English pair: similar on the page, but distinct in meaning, check the gloss before you choose.
- #3,169
- “harm” frequency rank
- #13,172
- “hum” frequency rank
- 16341
- confusion score
Side-by-Side Comparison
| Feature | harm | hum |
|---|---|---|
| Definition | Physical injury; hurt; damage. | A hummed tune, i.e. created orally with lips closed. |
Where the eye mixes harm and hum
Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 2 letters in sequence.
Visual trap between harm and hum
A purely visual mix-up. harm (/hɑːm/) and hum (/ˈhʌm/) 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 16341, 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/. hum is at rank #13,172, tagged as anoun, pronounced /ˈhʌm/.
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 16341, this pair ranks #458,353 of 530,003 scored English confusable pairs - a relatively easy-to-tell-apart pair.
Orthographic DNA of harm vs hum
Shared letters: hm. Private to "harm": ar. Private to "hum": u.
"harm" · 4 letters · shape CVCC · "hum" · 3 letters · shape CVC
Known mistypes of this pair
- harm ← ahrm · hamr · harmm · harrm · hharm · hram
Frequently Asked Questions
Is swapping "harm" for "hum" ever safe?
Frequency check: "harm" vs "hum" - which ranks higher?
After this comparison
Pronunciation already separates them, if the page still looks alike, the dictionary links below settle it.
- Full dictionary entry for "harm" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
- Full dictionary entry for "hum" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
- This pair ranks #458,353 of 530,003 scored English confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
- "harm" and "hum" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "hum vs humps". 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 #458,353 of 530,003 scored English pairs, corpus vintage 2026-09-03, not spelling advice.