hempvshipWhich spelling fits?

Which to use

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

#16,726
“hemp” frequency rank
#3,237
“hip” frequency rank
19963
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature hemp hip
Definition A tall annual herb, Cannabis sativa, native to Asia. The outward-projecting parts of the pelvis and top of the femur and the overlying tissue.

Where the eye mixes hemp and hip

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

4 ch
hemp
3 ch
hip

Visual trap between hemp and hip

A purely visual mix-up. hemp (/hɛmp/) and hip (/hɪp/) 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 1 letter(s) in length. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 19963, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

hemp is recorded at frequency rank #16,726, classified as anoun, pronounced /hɛmp/. hip is at rank #3,237, tagged as anoun, pronounced /hɪp/.

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 19963, this pair ranks #434,474 of 530,003 scored English confusable pairs - a relatively easy-to-tell-apart pair.

Orthographic DNA of hemp vs hip

Shared letters: hp. Private to "hemp": em. Private to "hip": i.

"hemp" · 4 letters · shape CVCC  ·  "hip" · 3 letters · shape CVC

Known mistypes of this pair

  • hempehmp · hemmp · hempp · hepm · hhemp · hmep

Frequently Asked Questions

Is swapping "hemp" for "hip" ever safe?
No. They are said differently (/hɛmp/ versus /hɪp/) and carry different meanings; reading the sentence aloud is usually enough to catch the wrong one.
Which is more common, "hemp" or "hip"?
"hip" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #3,237 in our English list, against #16,726 for "hemp". The two are close in frequency, so neither is a safe default; check the meaning rather than guessing.

What to do next

Visual near-miss handled. Browse the word pages or a neighbour when the next look-alike shows up.

  • Full dictionary entry for "hemp" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "hip" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #434,474 of 530,003 scored English confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "hemp" and "hip" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "hemp 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 #434,474 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