HobbsvshosTell them apart

Quick tell: Hobbs is a name, hos is a noun, so they fill different roles in a sentence.

Which to use

“Hobbs” is a name and “hos” is a noun - they look or sound alike but fill different roles in a sentence.

#21,239
“Hobbs” frequency rank
#31,601
“hos” frequency rank
52840
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature Hobbs hos
Definition A surname originating as a patronymic. plural of ho

Letter map: Hobbs vs hos

Shared letters muted; letters that set Hobbs and hos apart highlighted. Shared run: 3. Hobbs runs 5 letters (CVCCC) against hos's 3 (CVC) - the length gap alone is often enough to separate them once you know to check it.

5 ch
Hobbs
3 ch
hos

Role in the sentence - Hobbs and hos

Our dataset has no pronunciation recorded for both members, so the reliable separator here is grammatical: Hobbs is aname and hosanoun. On the page they differ by 2 letter(s) in length. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 52840, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

Hobbs is recorded at frequency rank #21,239, classified as aname. hos is at rank #31,601, tagged as anoun.

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 52840, this pair ranks #153,783 of 530,003 scored English confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.

Orthographic DNA of Hobbs vs hos

Shared letters: hos. Private to "Hobbs": b. Private to "hos": -.

"Hobbs" · 5 letters · shape CVCCC  ·  "hos" · 3 letters · shape CVC

Known mistypes of this pair

  • Hobbs ← hbobs · hhobbs · hobbss · hobs · hobsb · ohbbs

Frequently Asked Questions

Is swapping "Hobbs" for "hos" ever safe?
No - they are not even the same part of speech. "Hobbs" is a name and "hos" a noun, so a sentence built for one is usually ungrammatical with the other.
Frequency check: "Hobbs" vs "hos" - which ranks higher?
"Hobbs" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #21,239 in our English list, against #31,601 for "hos". The two are close in frequency, so neither is a safe default; check the meaning rather than guessing.

After this comparison

Pair "Hobbs" vs "hos" is on the table, pick a follow-up below.

  • Full dictionary entry for "Hobbs" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "hos" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #153,783 of 530,003 scored English confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "Hobbs" and "hos" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "hoke vs hos". 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 #153,783 of 530,003 scored English pairs, corpus vintage 2026-09-03, not spelling advice.

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

Source: FrequencyWords open word-frequency list