Which to use
“hooves” and “houses” are a confusable English pair: similar on the page, but distinct in meaning, check the gloss before you choose.
- #32,033
- “hooves” frequency rank
- #1,945
- “houses” frequency rank
- 33978
- confusion score
Side-by-Side Comparison
| Feature | hooves | houses |
|---|---|---|
| Definition | plural of hoof | plural of house |
Where the eye mixes hooves and houses
Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 4 letters in sequence.
Visual trap between hooves and houses
A purely visual mix-up. hooves (/hʊvz/) and houses (/ˈhaʊzɪz/) are said differently, so reading them aloud is the quickest way to catch the wrong one. On the page they stay close: they share most of their letters but differ in 2 positions. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 33978, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.
hooves is recorded at frequency rank #32,033, classified as anoun, pronounced /hʊvz/. houses is at rank #1,945, tagged as anoun, pronounced /ˈhaʊzɪz/.
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 33978, this pair ranks #324,711 of 530,003 scored English confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.
Orthographic DNA of hooves vs houses
Shared letters: ehos. Private to "hooves": v. Private to "houses": u.
"hooves" · 6 letters · shape CVVCVC · "houses" · 6 letters · shape CVVCVC
Known mistypes of this pair
Frequently Asked Questions
Do "hooves" and "houses" mean the same thing in a sentence?
Which is more common, "hooves" or "houses"?
What to do next
Pronunciation already separates them, if the page still looks alike, the dictionary links below settle it.
- Full dictionary entry for "hooves" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
- Full dictionary entry for "houses" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
- This pair ranks #324,711 of 530,003 scored English confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
- "hooves" and "houses" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "hooters vs hooves". 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 #324,711 of 530,003 scored English pairs, corpus vintage 2026-09-03, not spelling advice.