Which to use
“hate” and “hire” are a confusable English pair: similar on the page, but distinct in meaning, check the gloss before you choose.
- #807
- “hate” frequency rank
- #3,628
- “hire” frequency rank
- 4435
- confusion score
Side-by-Side Comparison
| Feature | hate | hire |
|---|---|---|
| Definition | An object of hatred. | A person who has been hired, especially in a cohort. |
Where the eye mixes hate and hire
Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 2 letters in sequence.
Visual trap between hate and hire
A purely visual mix-up. hate (/heʔ/) and hire (/ˈhaɪ(.)ə/) 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 4435, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.
hate is recorded at frequency rank #807, classified as anoun, pronounced /heʔ/. hire is at rank #3,628, tagged as anoun, pronounced /ˈhaɪ(.)ə/.
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 4435, this pair ranks #518,937 of 530,003 scored English confusable pairs - a relatively easy-to-tell-apart pair.
Orthographic DNA of hate vs hire
Shared letters: eh. Private to "hate": at. Private to "hire": ir.
"hate" · 4 letters · shape CVCV · "hire" · 4 letters · shape CVCV
Known mistypes of this pair
Frequently Asked Questions
Do "hate" and "hire" mean the same thing in a sentence?
Frequency check: "hate" vs "hire" - which ranks higher?
What to do next
Pronunciation already separates them, if the page still looks alike, the dictionary links below settle it.
- Full dictionary entry for "hate" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
- Full dictionary entry for "hire" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
- This pair ranks #518,937 of 530,003 scored English confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
- "hate" and "hire" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "hire vs hoke". 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 #518,937 of 530,003 scored English pairs, corpus vintage 2026-09-03, not spelling advice.