hey vs hi, What's the Difference?

Which to use

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

#787
“hey” frequency rank: #1,079
“hi” frequency rank: 1866
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature	hey	hi
Definition	An exclamation to get attention.	A friendly, informal, casual greeting said upon someone's arrival.

Where the eye mixes hey and hi

Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 1 letter in sequence.

3 ch

hey

2 ch

Why the eye confuses hey with hi

A purely visual mix-up. hey (/heɪ/) and hi (/haɪ/) 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 1866, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

hey is recorded at frequency rank #787, classified as anintj, pronounced /heɪ/. hi is at rank #1,079, tagged as anintj, 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 1866, this pair ranks #526,442 of 530,003 scored English confusable pairs - a relatively easy-to-tell-apart pair.

Orthographic DNA of hey vs hi

Shared letters: h. Private to "hey": ey. Private to "hi": i.

"hey" · 3 letters · shape CVV · "hi" · 2 letters · shape CV

Frequently Asked Questions

Is swapping "hey" for "hi" ever safe?

No. They are said differently (/heɪ/ versus /haɪ/) and carry different meanings; reading the sentence aloud is usually enough to catch the wrong one.

Frequency check: "hey" vs "hi" - which ranks higher?

"hey" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #787 in our English list, against #1,079 for "hi". The two are close in frequency, so neither is a safe default; check the meaning rather than guessing.

Useful next steps

Eye-level mix-up between "hey" and "hi" is sorted above. Next: full entries or other pairs that share a letter shape.

Full dictionary entry for "hey" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
Full dictionary entry for "hi" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
This pair ranks #526,442 of 530,003 scored English confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
"hey" and "hi" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "hi vs HIIT". Nearby pair

Confusion rank #526,442 of 530,003 scored English pairs, corpus vintage 2026-09-03, not spelling advice.