Which to use
“horde” and “hurdle” are a confusable English pair: similar on the page, but distinct in meaning, check the gloss before you choose.
- #21,541
- “horde” frequency rank
- #16,938
- “hurdle” frequency rank
- 38479
- confusion score
Side-by-Side Comparison
| Feature | horde | hurdle |
|---|---|---|
| Definition | A wandering troop or gang; especially, a clan or tribe of a nomadic people (originally Tatars) migrating from place to place for the sake of pasturage, plunder, etc.; a predatory multitude. | An artificial barrier, variously constructed, over which athletes or horses jump in a race. |
Where the eye mixes horde and hurdle
Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 4 letters in sequence.
Look-alike desk: horde vs hurdle
A purely visual mix-up. horde (/hɔːd/) and hurdle (/ˈhɜːdl̩/) 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 38479, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.
horde is recorded at frequency rank #21,541, classified as anoun, pronounced /hɔːd/. hurdle is at rank #16,938, tagged as anoun, pronounced /ˈhɜːdl̩/.
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 38479, this pair ranks #285,550 of 530,003 scored English confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.
Orthographic DNA of horde vs hurdle
Shared letters: dehr. Private to "horde": o. Private to "hurdle": lu.
"horde" · 5 letters · shape CVCCV · "hurdle" · 6 letters · shape CVCCCV
Known mistypes of this pair
Frequently Asked Questions
Do "horde" and "hurdle" mean the same thing in a sentence?
Which is more common, "horde" or "hurdle"?
After this comparison
Eye-level mix-up between "horde" and "hurdle" is sorted above. Next: full entries or other pairs that share a letter shape.
- Full dictionary entry for "horde" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
- Full dictionary entry for "hurdle" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
- This pair ranks #285,550 of 530,003 scored English confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
- "horde" and "hurdle" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "hoke vs horde". 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 #285,550 of 530,003 scored English pairs, corpus vintage 2026-09-03, not spelling advice.