hint vs hit, What's the Difference?

Which to use

“hint” is a noun and “hit” is a verb - they look or sound alike but fill different roles in a sentence.

#6,363
“hint” frequency rank: #421
“hit” frequency rank: 6784
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature	hint	hit
Definition	A clue.	To strike.

Where the eye mixes hint and hit

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

4 ch

hint

3 ch

hit

Why the eye confuses hint with hit

These two trip readers on the page rather than in the ear: hint is /hɪnt/ while hit is /hɪt/. Spoken aloud the problem disappears. In writing it persists, because they differ by 1 letter(s) in length, and the parts of speech differ too (noun vs verb), which is usually the fastest check. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 6784, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

hint is recorded at frequency rank #6,363, classified as anoun, pronounced /hɪnt/. 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 6784, this pair ranks #509,985 of 530,003 scored English confusable pairs - a relatively easy-to-tell-apart pair.

Orthographic DNA of hint vs hit

Shared letters: hit. Private to "hint": n. Private to "hit": -.

"hint" · 4 letters · shape CVCC · "hit" · 3 letters · shape CVC

Known mistypes of this pair

hint ← hhint · hinnt · hintt · hitn · hnit · ihnt

Frequently Asked Questions

Is swapping "hint" for "hit" ever safe?

No - they are not even the same part of speech. "hint" is a noun and "hit" a verb, so a sentence built for one is usually ungrammatical with the other.

In ordinary English text, does "hint" or "hit" show up more?

"hit" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #421 in our English list, against #6,363 for "hint". That is a wide gap, so in ordinary text the rarer spelling is the one worth double-checking.

After this comparison

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

Full dictionary entry for "hint" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
Full dictionary entry for "hit" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
This pair ranks #509,985 of 530,003 scored English confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
"hint" and "hit" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "HIIT vs hint". 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 #509,985 of 530,003 scored English pairs, corpus vintage 2026-09-03, not spelling advice.