hokevshosesWhat's the difference?

Which to use

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

#49,982
“hoke” frequency rank
#29,312
“hoses” frequency rank
79294
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature hoke hoses
Definition Alternative form of hook. plural of hose

Where the eye mixes hoke and hoses

Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 3 letters in sequence. hoke runs 4 letters (CVCV) against hoses's 5 (CVCVC) - the length gap alone is often enough to separate them once you know to check it.

4 ch
hoke
5 ch
hoses

Why the eye confuses hoke with hoses

A purely visual mix-up. hoke (/hoʊk/) and hoses (/ˈhəʊzɪz/) 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 79294, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

hoke is recorded at frequency rank #49,982, classified as anoun, pronounced /hoʊk/. hoses is at rank #29,312, tagged as anoun, pronounced /ˈhəʊzɪz/.

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 79294, this pair ranks #22,462 of 530,003 scored English confusable pairs - among the most confusable pairs.

Orthographic DNA of hoke vs hoses

Shared letters: eho. Private to "hoke": k. Private to "hoses": s.

"hoke" · 4 letters · shape CVCV  ·  "hoses" · 5 letters · shape CVCVC

Known mistypes of this pair

  • hoke ← hhoke · hkoe · hoek · hokke · ohke
  • hoses ← hhoses · hoess · hosess · hosses · ohses

Frequently Asked Questions

Do "hoke" and "hoses" mean the same thing in a sentence?
No. They are said differently (/hoʊk/ versus /ˈhəʊzɪz/) and carry different meanings; reading the sentence aloud is usually enough to catch the wrong one.
Frequency check: "hoke" vs "hoses" - which ranks higher?
"hoses" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #29,312 in our English list, against #49,982 for "hoke". The two are close in frequency, so neither is a safe default; check the meaning rather than guessing.

Useful next steps

Eye-level mix-up between "hoke" and "hoses" is sorted above. Next: full entries or other pairs that share a letter shape.

  • Full dictionary entry for "hoke" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "hoses" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #22,462 of 530,003 scored English confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "hoke" and "hoses" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "Hoare vs hoke". 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 #22,462 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