Which to use
“hickey” and “hockey” are a confusable English pair: similar on the page, but distinct in meaning, check the gloss before you choose.
- #25,088
- “hickey” frequency rank
- #3,497
- “hockey” frequency rank
- 28585
- confusion score
Side-by-Side Comparison
| Feature | hickey | hockey |
|---|---|---|
| Definition | A bruise-like mark made during petting by pressing the mouth to the skin on one’s partner’s body and sucking. | Any of a family of sports in which hockey sticks are used to move a ball or puck into a goal. |
Where the eye mixes hickey and hockey
Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 5 letters in sequence. hickey and hockey follow the identical consonant-vowel pattern (CVCCVV). Same shape at a glance is often the real trap, independent of shared letters.
Visual trap between hickey and hockey
A purely visual mix-up. hickey (/ˈhɪk.i/) and hockey (/ˈhɒ.ki/) 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 - i in “hickey” becomes o in “hockey”. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 28585, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.
hickey is recorded at frequency rank #25,088, classified as anoun, pronounced /ˈhɪk.i/. hockey is at rank #3,497, tagged as anoun, pronounced /ˈhɒ.ki/.
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 28585, this pair ranks #369,901 of 530,003 scored English confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.
Orthographic DNA of hickey vs hockey
Shared letters: cehky. Private to "hickey": i. Private to "hockey": o.
"hickey" · 6 letters · shape CVCCVV · "hockey" · 6 letters · shape CVCCVV
Known mistypes of this pair
Frequently Asked Questions
Can "hickey" and "hockey" be used interchangeably?
Frequency check: "hickey" vs "hockey" - which ranks higher?
Useful next steps
Visual near-miss handled. Browse the word pages or a neighbour when the next look-alike shows up.
- Full dictionary entry for "hickey" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
- Full dictionary entry for "hockey" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
- This pair ranks #369,901 of 530,003 scored English confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
- "hickey" and "hockey" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "hickey vs hokey". 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 #369,901 of 530,003 scored English pairs, corpus vintage 2026-09-03, not spelling advice.