hidevshitWhat's the difference?

Which to use

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

#2,794
“hide” frequency rank
#421
“hit” frequency rank
3215
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature hide hit
Definition To put (something) in a place where it will be out of sight or harder to discover. To strike.

Where the eye mixes hide and hit

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

4 ch
hide
3 ch
hit

Spelling & Dictionary Insight

A purely visual mix-up. hide (/haɪd/) and hit (/hɪt/) 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 3215, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

hide is recorded at frequency rank #2,794, classified as averb, pronounced /haɪd/. hit is at rank #421, tagged as averb, pronounced /hɪt/.

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 3215, this pair ranks #522,778 of 530,003 scored English confusable pairs - a relatively easy-to-tell-apart pair.

Orthographic DNA of hide vs hit

Shared letters: hi. Private to "hide": de. Private to "hit": t.

"hide" · 4 letters · shape CVCV  ·  "hit" · 3 letters · shape CVC

Known mistypes of this pair

  • hidehdie · hhide · hidde · hied · ihde

Frequently Asked Questions

Can "hide" and "hit" be used interchangeably?
No. They are said differently (/haɪd/ versus /hɪt/) and carry different meanings; reading the sentence aloud is usually enough to catch the wrong one.
Which is more common, "hide" or "hit"?
"hit" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #421 in our English list, against #2,794 for "hide". The two are close in frequency, so neither is a safe default; check the meaning rather than guessing.

Source: Wiktionary (via kaikki.org) Structured Wiktionary extract

Source: FrequencyWords open word-frequency list