Which to use
“hog” and “hough” are a confusable English pair: similar on the page, but distinct in meaning, check the gloss before you choose.
- #13,532
- “hog” frequency rank
- #29,686
- “hough” frequency rank
- 43218
- confusion score
Side-by-Side Comparison
| Feature | hog | hough |
|---|---|---|
| Definition | Any animal belonging to the Suidae family of mammals, especially the pig, the warthog, and the boar. | Alternative form of hock (“the hollow behind the knee”). |
Where the eye mixes hog and hough
Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 3 letters in sequence. hog runs 3 letters (CVC) against hough's 5 (CVVCC) - the length gap alone is often enough to separate them once you know to check it.
Look-alike desk: hog vs hough
A purely visual mix-up. hog (/hɒɡ/) and hough (/hɒk/) are said differently, so reading them aloud is the quickest way to catch the wrong one. On the page they stay close: they differ by 2 letter(s) in length. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 43218, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.
hog is recorded at frequency rank #13,532, classified as anoun, pronounced /hɒɡ/. hough is at rank #29,686, tagged as anoun, pronounced /hɒk/.
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 43218, this pair ranks #242,098 of 530,003 scored English confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.
Orthographic DNA of hog vs hough
Shared letters: gho. Private to "hog": -. Private to "hough": u.
"hog" · 3 letters · shape CVC · "hough" · 5 letters · shape CVVCC
Known mistypes of this pair
- hough ← hhough · hoguh · houggh · houghh · houhg · huogh · ohugh
Frequently Asked Questions
Is swapping "hog" for "hough" ever safe?
Which is more common, "hog" or "hough"?
After this comparison
Eye-level mix-up between "hog" and "hough" is sorted above. Next: full entries or other pairs that share a letter shape.
- Full dictionary entry for "hog" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
- Full dictionary entry for "hough" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
- This pair ranks #242,098 of 530,003 scored English confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
- "hog" and "hough" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "hooch vs hough". 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 #242,098 of 530,003 scored English pairs, corpus vintage 2026-09-03, not spelling advice.