hipvshopWhat's the difference?

Which to use

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

#3,237
“hip” frequency rank
#3,629
“hop” frequency rank
6866
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature hip hop
Definition The outward-projecting parts of the pelvis and top of the femur and the overlying tissue. A short jump.

Where the eye mixes hip and hop

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

3 ch
hip
3 ch
hop

Look-alike desk: hip vs hop

A purely visual mix-up. hip (/hɪp/) and hop (/hɒp/) 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 “hip” becomes o in “hop”. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 6866, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

hip is recorded at frequency rank #3,237, classified as anoun, pronounced /hɪp/. hop is at rank #3,629, tagged as anoun, pronounced /hɒp/.

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 6866, this pair ranks #509,655 of 530,003 scored English confusable pairs - a relatively easy-to-tell-apart pair.

Orthographic DNA of hip vs hop

Shared letters: hp. Private to "hip": i. Private to "hop": o.

"hip" · 3 letters · shape CVC  ·  "hop" · 3 letters · shape CVC

Frequently Asked Questions

Can "hip" and "hop" be used interchangeably?
No. They are said differently (/hɪp/ versus /hɒp/) and carry different meanings; reading the sentence aloud is usually enough to catch the wrong one.
In ordinary English text, does "hip" or "hop" show up more?
"hip" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #3,237 in our English list, against #3,629 for "hop". The two are close in frequency, so neither is a safe default; check the meaning rather than guessing.

After this comparison

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

  • Full dictionary entry for "hip" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "hop" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #509,655 of 530,003 scored English confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "hip" and "hop" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "hoke vs hop". Nearby pair

Confusion rank #509,655 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