Which to use
“hoarse” is an adjective and “horse” is a noun - they look or sound alike but fill different roles in a sentence.
- #43,691
- “hoarse” frequency rank
- #1,793
- “horse” frequency rank
- 45484
- confusion score
Side-by-Side Comparison
| Feature | hoarse | horse |
|---|---|---|
| Definition | Having a dry, harsh tone to the voice, as a result of a sore throat, age, emotion, etc. | A hoofed mammal, Equus ferus caballus, often used throughout history for riding and draft work. |
Same sound, different letters: hoarse vs horse
Muted letters are shared; highlighted letters are the only spelling cue when pronunciation matches. Shared run: 5 letters. hoarse runs 6 letters (CVVCCV) against horse's 5 (CVCCV) - the length gap alone is often enough to separate them once you know to check it.
Homophone desk: hoarse vs horse
Say them out loud and nothing separates them: hoarse and horse carry the same recorded pronunciation, /hɔːs/. Grammar is what tells them apart: one is anadjective, the other anoun, so most sentences will only accept one of them. They differ by 1 letter(s) in length. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 45484, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.
hoarse is recorded at frequency rank #43,691, classified as anadj, pronounced /hɔːs/. 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 45484, this pair ranks #220,859 of 530,003 scored English confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.
Orthographic DNA of hoarse vs horse
Shared letters: ehors. Private to "hoarse": a. Private to "horse": -.
"hoarse" · 6 letters · shape CVVCCV · "horse" · 5 letters · shape CVCCV
Known mistypes of this pair
Frequently Asked Questions
Is swapping "hoarse" for "horse" ever safe?
In ordinary English text, does "hoarse" or "horse" show up more?
What to do next
Sound matches; spelling doesn't. Use the exits below to lock the right form or check a cousin pair.
- Full dictionary entry for "hoarse" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
- Full dictionary entry for "horse" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
- This pair ranks #220,859 of 530,003 scored English confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
- "hoarse" and "horse" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "Hoare vs hoarse". 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 #220,859 of 530,003 scored English pairs, corpus vintage 2026-09-03, not spelling advice.