hoardvshoursWhat's the difference?

Which to use

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

#21,540
“hoard” frequency rank
#388
“hours” frequency rank
21928
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature hoard hours
Definition A hidden supply or fund. plural of hour

Where the eye mixes hoard and hours

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

5 ch
hoard
5 ch
hours

Spelling & Dictionary Insight

A purely visual mix-up. hoard (/hɔɹd/) and hours (/ˈaʊə(ɹ)z/) 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 21928, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

hoard is recorded at frequency rank #21,540, classified as anoun, pronounced /hɔɹd/. hours is at rank #388, tagged as anoun, pronounced /ˈaʊə(ɹ)z/.

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 21928, this pair ranks #420,338 of 530,003 scored English confusable pairs - a relatively easy-to-tell-apart pair.

Orthographic DNA of hoard vs hours

Shared letters: hor. Private to "hoard": ad. Private to "hours": su.

"hoard" · 5 letters · shape CVVCC  ·  "hours" · 5 letters · shape CVVCC

Known mistypes of this pair

  • hoardhaord · hhoard · hoadr · hoardd · hoarrd · horad · ohard
  • hourshhours · hourrs · hourss · housr · huors · ohurs

Frequently Asked Questions

Can "hoard" and "hours" be used interchangeably?
No. They are said differently (/hɔɹd/ versus /ˈaʊə(ɹ)z/) and carry different meanings; reading the sentence aloud is usually enough to catch the wrong one.
Which is more common, "hoard" or "hours"?
"hours" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #388 in our English list, against #21,540 for "hoard". That is a wide gap, so in ordinary text the rarer spelling is the one worth double-checking.

What to do next

You've compared "hoard" and "hours". Here's where to go from here.

  • Full dictionary entry for "hoard" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "hours" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #420,338 of 530,003 scored English confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "hoard" and "hours" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "hoard vs Hoare". 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

PlainSpell is a reference corpus, not spelling advice. Verify unusual forms in context.

Source: Wiktionary (via kaikki.org) Structured Wiktionary extract

Source: FrequencyWords open word-frequency list