hidesvshipsConfusable pair

Which to use

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

#11,393
“hides” frequency rank
#9,761
“hips” frequency rank
21154
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature hides hips
Definition plural of hide plural of hip

Where the eye mixes hides and hips

Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 3 letters in sequence.

5 ch
hides
4 ch
hips

Look-alike desk: hides vs hips

A purely visual mix-up. hides (/haɪdz/) and hips (/hɪps/) 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 21154, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

hides is recorded at frequency rank #11,393, classified as anoun, pronounced /haɪdz/. hips is at rank #9,761, tagged as anoun, pronounced /hɪps/.

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 21154, this pair ranks #425,987 of 530,003 scored English confusable pairs - a relatively easy-to-tell-apart pair.

Orthographic DNA of hides vs hips

Shared letters: his. Private to "hides": de. Private to "hips": p.

"hides" · 5 letters · shape CVCVC  ·  "hips" · 4 letters · shape CVCC

Known mistypes of this pair

  • hideshdies · hhides · hiddes · hidess · hidse · hieds · ihdes
  • hipshhips · hipps · hipss · hisp · hpis · ihps

Frequently Asked Questions

Is swapping "hides" for "hips" ever safe?
No. They are said differently (/haɪdz/ versus /hɪps/) and carry different meanings; reading the sentence aloud is usually enough to catch the wrong one.
Frequency check: "hides" vs "hips" - which ranks higher?
"hips" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #9,761 in our English list, against #11,393 for "hides". The two are close in frequency, so neither is a safe default; check the meaning rather than guessing.

What to do next

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

  • Full dictionary entry for "hides" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "hips" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #425,987 of 530,003 scored English confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "hides" and "hips" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "HIIT vs hips". 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 #425,987 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