Which to use
“hob” is a noun and “Hobbs” is a name - they look or sound alike but fill different roles in a sentence.
- #38,889
- “hob” frequency rank
- #21,239
- “Hobbs” frequency rank
- 60128
- confusion score
Side-by-Side Comparison
| Feature | hob | Hobbs |
|---|---|---|
| Definition | A kind of cutting tool, used to cut the teeth of a gear. | A surname originating as a patronymic. |
Letter map: hob vs Hobbs
Shared letters muted; letters that set hob and Hobbs apart highlighted. Shared run: 3. hob runs 3 letters (CVC) against Hobbs's 5 (CVCCC) - the length gap alone is often enough to separate them once you know to check it.
Part-of-speech tell for hob / Hobbs
Our dataset has no pronunciation recorded for both members, so the reliable separator here is grammatical: hob is anoun and Hobbsaname. On the page they differ by 2 extra letter(s) - “hob” sits inside “Hobbs”. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 60128, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.
hob is recorded at frequency rank #38,889, classified as anoun, pronounced /hɑb/. Hobbs is at rank #21,239, tagged as aname.
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 60128, this pair ranks #102,022 of 530,003 scored English confusable pairs - among the most confusable pairs.
Orthographic DNA of hob vs Hobbs
Shared letters: bho. Private to "hob": -. Private to "Hobbs": s.
"hob" · 3 letters · shape CVC · "Hobbs" · 5 letters · shape CVCCC
Known mistypes of this pair
- Hobbs ← hbobs · hhobbs · hobbss · hobs · hobsb · ohbbs
Frequently Asked Questions
Is swapping "hob" for "Hobbs" ever safe?
In ordinary English text, does "hob" or "Hobbs" show up more?
After this comparison
Pair "hob" vs "Hobbs" is on the table, pick a follow-up below.
- Full dictionary entry for "hob" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
- Full dictionary entry for "Hobbs" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
- This pair ranks #102,022 of 530,003 scored English confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
- "hob" and "Hobbs" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "hob vs hoke". 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 #102,022 of 530,003 scored English pairs, corpus vintage 2026-09-03, not spelling advice.