hathvshighConfusable pair

Quick tell: hath is a verb, high is an adjective, so they fill different roles in a sentence.

Which to use

“hath” is a verb and “high” is an adjective - they look or sound alike but fill different roles in a sentence.

#12,617
“hath” frequency rank
#172
“high” frequency rank
12789
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature hath high
Definition third-person singular simple present indicative of have Physically elevated, extending above a base or average level:

Where the eye mixes hath and high

Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 2 letters in sequence.

4 ch
hath
4 ch
high

Visual trap between hath and high

These two trip readers on the page rather than in the ear: hath is /hæθ/ while high is /haɪ/. 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 adjective), which is usually the fastest check. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 12789, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

hath is recorded at frequency rank #12,617, classified as averb, pronounced /hæθ/. high is at rank #172, tagged as anadj, pronounced /haɪ/.

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 12789, this pair ranks #479,551 of 530,003 scored English confusable pairs - a relatively easy-to-tell-apart pair.

Orthographic DNA of hath vs high

Shared letters: h. Private to "hath": at. Private to "high": gi.

"hath" · 4 letters · shape CVCC  ·  "high" · 4 letters · shape CVCC

Known mistypes of this pair

  • hathahth · haht · hathh · hatth · hhath · htah
  • highhgih · hhigh · higgh · highh · hihg · ihgh

Frequently Asked Questions

Do "hath" and "high" mean the same thing in a sentence?
No - they are not even the same part of speech. "hath" is a verb and "high" an adjective, so a sentence built for one is usually ungrammatical with the other.
Which is more common, "hath" or "high"?
"high" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #172 in our English list, against #12,617 for "hath". That is a wide gap, so in ordinary text the rarer spelling is the one worth double-checking.

After this comparison

Pronunciation already separates them, if the page still looks alike, the dictionary links below settle it.

  • Full dictionary entry for "hath" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "high" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #479,551 of 530,003 scored English confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "hath" and "high" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "hasta vs hath". 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 #479,551 of 530,003 scored English pairs, corpus vintage 2026-09-03, not spelling advice.

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

Source: FrequencyWords open word-frequency list