Which to use
“hire” and “horse” are a confusable English pair: similar on the page, but distinct in meaning, check the gloss before you choose.
- #3,628
- “hire” frequency rank
- #1,793
- “horse” frequency rank
- 5421
- confusion score
Side-by-Side Comparison
| Feature | hire | horse |
|---|---|---|
| Definition | A person who has been hired, especially in a cohort. | A hoofed mammal, Equus ferus caballus, often used throughout history for riding and draft work. |
Where the eye mixes hire and horse
Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 3 letters in sequence.
Spelling & Dictionary Insight
A purely visual mix-up. hire (/ˈhaɪ(.)ə/) and horse (/hɔːs/) 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 5421, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.
hire is recorded at frequency rank #3,628, classified as anoun, pronounced /ˈhaɪ(.)ə/. horse is at rank #1,793, tagged as anoun, pronounced /hɔːs/.
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 5421, this pair ranks #515,392 of 530,003 scored English confusable pairs - a relatively easy-to-tell-apart pair.
Orthographic DNA of hire vs horse
Shared letters: ehr. Private to "hire": i. Private to "horse": os.
"hire" · 4 letters · shape CVCV · "horse" · 5 letters · shape CVCCV