hayevshazeWhat's the difference?

Which to use

“haye” and “haze” are a confusable English pair: similar on the page, but distinct in meaning, check the gloss before you choose.

#44,832
“haye” frequency rank
#16,723
“haze” frequency rank
61555
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature haye haze
Definition A shark (scaleless cartilaginous fish). Very fine solid particles (smoke, dust) or liquid droplets (moisture) suspended in the air, slightly limiting visibility. (Compare fog, mist.)

Where the eye mixes haye and haze

Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 3 letters in sequence.

4 ch
haye
4 ch
haze

Spelling & Dictionary Insight

A purely visual mix-up. haye (/heɪ/) and haze (/heɪz/) 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 a single letter - y in “haye” becomes z in “haze”. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 61555, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

haye is recorded at frequency rank #44,832, classified as anoun, pronounced /heɪ/. haze is at rank #16,723, tagged as anoun, pronounced /heɪz/.

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 61555, this pair ranks #93,579 of 530,003 scored English confusable pairs - among the most confusable pairs.

Orthographic DNA of haye vs haze

Shared letters: aeh. Private to "haye": y. Private to "haze": z.

"haye" · 4 letters · shape CVVV  ·  "haze" · 4 letters · shape CVCV

Known mistypes of this pair

  • hayeahye · haey · hayye · hhaye · hyae
  • hazeahze · haez · hazze · hhaze · hzae

Frequently Asked Questions

Can "haye" and "haze" be used interchangeably?
No. They are said differently (/heɪ/ versus /heɪz/) and carry different meanings; reading the sentence aloud is usually enough to catch the wrong one.
Which is more common, "haye" or "haze"?
"haze" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #16,723 in our English list, against #44,832 for "haye". The two are close in frequency, so neither is a safe default; check the meaning rather than guessing.

What to do next

You've compared "haye" and "haze". Here's where to go from here.

  • Full dictionary entry for "haye" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "haze" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #93,579 of 530,003 scored English confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "haye" and "haze" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "haye 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

PlainSpell is a reference corpus, not spelling advice. Verify unusual forms in context.

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

Source: FrequencyWords open word-frequency list