hatervsHawesWhat's the difference?

Quick tell: hater is a noun, Hawes is a name, so they fill different roles in a sentence.

Which to use

“hater” is a noun and “Hawes” is a name - they look or sound alike but fill different roles in a sentence.

#24,183
“hater” frequency rank
#37,965
“Hawes” frequency rank
62148
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature hater Hawes
Definition One who hates. A small market town and civil parish (served by Hawes and High Abbotside Parish Council) in North Yorkshire, England, previously in Richmondshire district (OS grid ref SD8789).

Where the spellings diverge

Shared letters are muted; the letters that actually set hater and Hawes apart are highlighted. They share 3 letters in sequence, which is exactly why the eye skips the difference.

5 ch
hater
5 ch
Hawes

Spelling & Dictionary Insight

These two trip readers on the page rather than in the ear: hater is /ˈheɪtə(ɹ)/ while Hawes is /ˈhɔːz/. 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 (noun vs name), which is usually the fastest check. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 62148, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

hater is recorded at frequency rank #24,183, classified as anoun, pronounced /ˈheɪtə(ɹ)/. Hawes is at rank #37,965, tagged as aname, pronounced /ˈhɔːz/.

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 62148, this pair ranks #90,125 of 530,003 scored English confusable pairs - among the most confusable pairs.

Orthographic DNA of hater vs Hawes

Shared letters: aeh. Private to "hater": rt. Private to "Hawes": sw.

"hater" · 5 letters · shape CVCVC  ·  "Hawes" · 5 letters · shape CVCVC

Known mistypes of this pair

  • haterahter · haetr · haterr · hatre · hhater · htaer
  • Hawesahwes · haews · hawess · hawse · hawwes · hhawes · hwaes

Frequency comparison

hater#24,183
Hawes#37,965

Source: FrequencyWords open word-frequency list

Frequently Asked Questions

Can "hater" and "Hawes" be used interchangeably?
No - they are not even the same part of speech. "hater" is a noun and "Hawes" a name, so a sentence built for one is usually ungrammatical with the other.
Which is more common, "hater" or "Hawes"?
"hater" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #24,183 in our English list, against #37,965 for "Hawes". The two are close in frequency, so neither is a safe default; check the meaning rather than guessing.

Remembering hater vs Hawes

The fastest way to pick the right one every time.

  • Check the role first: if you need a noun, it's “hater”; for a name, it's “Hawes”.
  • See each word in full, definition, IPA, etymology and its other confusables. Full “hater” entry
  • Browse more pairs most likely to be confused. Most confusable

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

Source: FrequencyWords open word-frequency list