herebyvshereofConfusable pair

Which to use

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

#12,989
“hereby” frequency rank
#47,673
“hereof” frequency rank
60662
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature hereby hereof
Definition Near this place; nearby. Of this; concerning this.

Where the eye mixes hereby and hereof

Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 4 letters in sequence.

6 ch
hereby
6 ch
hereof

Look-alike desk: hereby vs hereof

A purely visual mix-up. hereby (/hɪəˈbʌɪ/) and hereof (/hɪəˈɹɒv/) are said differently, so reading them aloud is the quickest way to catch the wrong one. On the page they stay close: they share most of their letters but differ in 2 positions. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 60662, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

hereby is recorded at frequency rank #12,989, classified as anadv, pronounced /hɪəˈbʌɪ/. hereof is at rank #47,673, tagged as anadv, pronounced /hɪəˈɹɒv/.

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 60662, this pair ranks #98,870 of 530,003 scored English confusable pairs - among the most confusable pairs.

Orthographic DNA of hereby vs hereof

Shared letters: ehr. Private to "hereby": by. Private to "hereof": fo.

"hereby" · 6 letters · shape CVCVCV  ·  "hereof" · 6 letters · shape CVCVVC

Known mistypes of this pair

  • herebyehreby · heerby · herbey · herebby · herebyy · hereyb · herreby · hhereby
  • hereofehreof · heerof · herefo · hereoff · heroef · herreof · hhereof · hreeof

Frequently Asked Questions

Is swapping "hereby" for "hereof" ever safe?
No. They are said differently (/hɪəˈbʌɪ/ versus /hɪəˈɹɒv/) and carry different meanings; reading the sentence aloud is usually enough to catch the wrong one.
Frequency check: "hereby" vs "hereof" - which ranks higher?
"hereby" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #12,989 in our English list, against #47,673 for "hereof". The two are close in frequency, so neither is a safe default; check the meaning rather than guessing.

Useful next steps

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

  • Full dictionary entry for "hereby" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "hereof" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #98,870 of 530,003 scored English confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "hereby" and "hereof" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "hereof vs Herod". 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 #98,870 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