Which to use
“hells” and “hulls” are a confusable English pair: similar on the page, but distinct in meaning, check the gloss before you choose.
- #26,457
- “hells” frequency rank
- #33,275
- “hulls” frequency rank
- 59732
- confusion score
Side-by-Side Comparison
| Feature | hells | hulls |
|---|---|---|
| Definition | plural of hell | plural of hull |
Where the eye mixes hells and hulls
Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 4 letters in sequence.
Why the eye confuses hells with hulls
A purely visual mix-up. hells (/hɛlz/) and hulls (/hʌlz/) 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 - e in “hells” becomes u in “hulls”. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 59732, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.
hells is recorded at frequency rank #26,457, classified as anoun, pronounced /hɛlz/. hulls is at rank #33,275, tagged as anoun, pronounced /hʌlz/.
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 59732, this pair ranks #104,410 of 530,003 scored English confusable pairs - among the most confusable pairs.
Orthographic DNA of hells vs hulls
Shared letters: hls. Private to "hells": e. Private to "hulls": u.
"hells" · 5 letters · shape CVCCC · "hulls" · 5 letters · shape CVCCC
Known mistypes of this pair
Frequently Asked Questions
Do "hells" and "hulls" mean the same thing in a sentence?
Which is more common, "hells" or "hulls"?
What to do next
Eye-level mix-up between "hells" and "hulls" is sorted above. Next: full entries or other pairs that share a letter shape.
- Full dictionary entry for "hells" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
- Full dictionary entry for "hulls" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
- This pair ranks #104,410 of 530,003 scored English confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
- "hells" and "hulls" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "hulls vs humps". 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 #104,410 of 530,003 scored English pairs, corpus vintage 2026-09-03, not spelling advice.