hasvshicWhat's the difference?

Quick tell: has is a verb, hic is an intj, so they fill different roles in a sentence.

Which to use

“has” is a verb and “hic” is an intj - they look or sound alike but fill different roles in a sentence.

#47
“has” frequency rank
#49,392
“hic” frequency rank
49439
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature has hic
Definition third-person singular simple present indicative of have An approximation to the sound of a hiccup, used e.g. to indicate drunkenness.

Where the eye mixes has and hic

Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 1 letter in sequence.

3 ch
has
3 ch
hic

Spelling & Dictionary Insight

These two trip readers on the page rather than in the ear: has is /hæz/ while hic is /hɪk/. Spoken aloud the problem disappears. In writing it persists, because they share most of their letters but differ in 2 positions, and the parts of speech differ too (verb vs intj), which is usually the fastest check. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 49439, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

has is recorded at frequency rank #47, classified as averb, pronounced /hæz/. hic is at rank #49,392, tagged as anintj, pronounced /hɪk/.

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 49439, this pair ranks #183,598 of 530,003 scored English confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.

Orthographic DNA of has vs hic

Shared letters: h. Private to "has": as. Private to "hic": ci.

"has" · 3 letters · shape CVC  ·  "hic" · 3 letters · shape CVC

Frequently Asked Questions

Can "has" and "hic" be used interchangeably?
No - they are not even the same part of speech. "has" is a verb and "hic" an intj, so a sentence built for one is usually ungrammatical with the other.
Which is more common, "has" or "hic"?
"has" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #47 in our English list, against #49,392 for "hic". That is a wide gap, so in ordinary text the rarer spelling is the one worth double-checking.

Source: Wiktionary (via kaikki.org) Structured Wiktionary extract

Source: FrequencyWords open word-frequency list