hocusvsHusWhat's the difference?

Quick tell: hocus is a verb, Hus is a name, so they fill different roles in a sentence.

Which to use

“hocus” is a verb and “Hus” is a name - they look or sound alike but fill different roles in a sentence.

#48,804
“hocus” frequency rank
#42,702
“Hus” frequency rank
91506
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature hocus Hus
Definition To play a trick on, to trick (someone); to hoax; to cheat. A surname from Czech, notably borne by Jan Hus, a Czech religious reformer.

Letter map: hocus vs Hus

Shared letters muted; letters that set hocus and Hus apart highlighted. Shared run: 3.

5 ch
hocus
3 ch
Hus

Role in the sentence - hocus and Hus

Our dataset has no pronunciation recorded for both members, so the reliable separator here is grammatical: hocus is averb and Husaname. On the page they differ by 2 letter(s) in length. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 91506, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

hocus is recorded at frequency rank #48,804, classified as averb, pronounced /ˈhəʊkəs/. Hus is at rank #42,702, 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 91506, this pair ranks #3,258 of 530,003 scored English confusable pairs - among the most confusable pairs.

Orthographic DNA of hocus vs Hus

Shared letters: hsu. Private to "hocus": co. Private to "Hus": -.

"hocus" · 5 letters · shape CVCVC  ·  "Hus" · 3 letters · shape CVC

Known mistypes of this pair

  • hocushcous · hhocus · hoccus · hocsu · hocuss · houcs · ohcus

Frequently Asked Questions

Do "hocus" and "Hus" mean the same thing in a sentence?
No - they are not even the same part of speech. "hocus" is a verb and "Hus" a name, so a sentence built for one is usually ungrammatical with the other.
Which is more common, "hocus" or "Hus"?
"Hus" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #42,702 in our English list, against #48,804 for "hocus". The two are close in frequency, so neither is a safe default; check the meaning rather than guessing.

Useful next steps

Pair "hocus" vs "Hus" is on the table, pick a follow-up below.

  • Full dictionary entry for "hocus" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "Hus" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #3,258 of 530,003 scored English confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "hocus" and "Hus" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "hocus vs hoss". 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 #3,258 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