# HMS vs how

> English confusable word pair

## The two words

### HMS
*noun · frequency rank #17,629*
Initialism of His/Her Majesty's Ship (prefix for ships in the navy of a monarchy, such as the British Royal Navy).

### how
*adverb · IPA /haʊ/ · frequency rank #67*
To what degree or extent.

## Source
Compiled from Wiktionary via kaikki.org (CC BY-SA). Data vintage: 2026-05-06.
Canonical page: https://plainspell.com/en/vs/hms-vs-how