Which to use
“hips” and “hows” are a confusable English pair: similar on the page, but distinct in meaning, check the gloss before you choose.
- #9,761
- “hips” frequency rank
- #38,890
- “hows” frequency rank
- 48651
- confusion score
Side-by-Side Comparison
| Feature | hips | hows |
|---|---|---|
| Definition | plural of hip | plural of how |
Where the eye mixes hips and hows
Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 2 letters in sequence. hips and hows follow the identical consonant-vowel pattern (CVCC). Same shape at a glance is often the real trap, independent of shared letters.
Look-alike desk: hips vs hows
A purely visual mix-up. hips (/hɪps/) and hows (/haʊz/) are said differently, so reading them aloud is the quickest way to catch the wrong one. On the page they stay close: they share most of their letters but differ in 2 positions. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 48651, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.
hips is recorded at frequency rank #9,761, classified as anoun, pronounced /hɪps/. hows is at rank #38,890, tagged as anoun, pronounced /haʊz/.
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 48651, this pair ranks #191,011 of 530,003 scored English confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.
Orthographic DNA of hips vs hows
Shared letters: hs. Private to "hips": ip. Private to "hows": ow.
"hips" · 4 letters · shape CVCC · "hows" · 4 letters · shape CVCC
Known mistypes of this pair
Frequently Asked Questions
Do "hips" and "hows" mean the same thing in a sentence?
In ordinary English text, does "hips" or "hows" show up more?
Useful next steps
Pronunciation already separates them, if the page still looks alike, the dictionary links below settle it.
- Full dictionary entry for "hips" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
- Full dictionary entry for "hows" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
- This pair ranks #191,011 of 530,003 scored English confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
- "hips" and "hows" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "hoke vs hows". 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 #191,011 of 530,003 scored English pairs, corpus vintage 2026-09-03, not spelling advice.