hodvshourWhat's the difference?

Quick tell: hod is a verb, hour is a noun, so they fill different roles in a sentence.

Which to use

“hod” is a verb and “hour” is a noun - they look or sound alike but fill different roles in a sentence.

#49,395
“hod” frequency rank
#675
“hour” frequency rank
50070
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature hod hour
Definition To bob up and down on horseback, as an inexperienced rider may do; to jog. A unit of time of one twenty-fourth of a day (sixty minutes).

Where the eye mixes hod and hour

Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 2 letters in sequence.

3 ch
hod
4 ch
hour

Spelling & Dictionary Insight

These two trip readers on the page rather than in the ear: hod is /hɒd/ while hour is /aʊə/. Spoken aloud the problem disappears. In writing it persists, because they differ by 1 letter(s) in length, and the parts of speech differ too (verb vs noun), which is usually the fastest check. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 50070, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

hod is recorded at frequency rank #49,395, classified as averb, pronounced /hɒd/. hour is at rank #675, tagged as anoun, pronounced /aʊə/.

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 50070, this pair ranks #177,637 of 530,003 scored English confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.

Orthographic DNA of hod vs hour

Shared letters: ho. Private to "hod": d. Private to "hour": ru.

"hod" · 3 letters · shape CVC  ·  "hour" · 4 letters · shape CVVC

Known mistypes of this pair

  • hourhhour · horu · hourr · huor · ohur

Frequently Asked Questions

Can "hod" and "hour" be used interchangeably?
No - they are not even the same part of speech. "hod" is a verb and "hour" a noun, so a sentence built for one is usually ungrammatical with the other.
Which is more common, "hod" or "hour"?
"hour" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #675 in our English list, against #49,395 for "hod". That is a wide gap, so in ordinary text the rarer spelling is the one worth double-checking.

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

Source: FrequencyWords open word-frequency list