hoggvshoughWhich spelling fits?

Which to use

“hogg” and “hough” are a confusable English pair: similar on the page, but distinct in meaning, check the gloss before you choose.

#23,862
“hogg” frequency rank
#29,686
“hough” frequency rank
53548
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature hogg hough
Definition A young sheep of either gender, until it cuts its first two teeth; a hogget. Alternative form of hock (“the hollow behind the knee”).

Where the eye mixes hogg and hough

Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 3 letters in sequence.

4 ch
hogg
5 ch
hough

Look-alike desk: hogg vs hough

A purely visual mix-up. hogg (/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 1 letter(s) in length. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 53548, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

hogg is recorded at frequency rank #23,862, 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 53548, this pair ranks #148,058 of 530,003 scored English confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.

Orthographic DNA of hogg vs hough

Shared letters: gho. Private to "hogg": -. Private to "hough": u.

"hogg" · 4 letters · shape CVCC  ·  "hough" · 5 letters · shape CVVCC

Known mistypes of this pair

  • hogghgog · hhogg · ohgg
  • houghhhough · hoguh · houggh · houghh · houhg · huogh · ohugh

Frequently Asked Questions

Is swapping "hogg" for "hough" ever safe?
No. They are said differently (/hɒɡ/ versus /hɒk/) and carry different meanings; reading the sentence aloud is usually enough to catch the wrong one.
Which is more common, "hogg" or "hough"?
"hogg" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #23,862 in our English list, against #29,686 for "hough". The two are close in frequency, so neither is a safe default; check the meaning rather than guessing.

After this comparison

Visual near-miss handled. Browse the word pages or a neighbour when the next look-alike shows up.

  • Full dictionary entry for "hogg" 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 #148,058 of 530,003 scored English confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "hogg" 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 #148,058 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