Which to use
“horn” and “hose” are a confusable English pair: similar on the page, but distinct in meaning, check the gloss before you choose.
- #5,689
- “horn” frequency rank
- #10,710
- “hose” frequency rank
- 16399
- confusion score
Side-by-Side Comparison
| Feature | horn | hose |
|---|---|---|
| Definition | A hard growth of keratin that protrudes from the top of the head of certain animals, usually paired. | A flexible tube conveying water or other fluid. |
Where the eye mixes horn and hose
Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 2 letters in sequence.
Spelling & Dictionary Insight
A purely visual mix-up. horn (/hɔːn/) and hose (/həʊz/) 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 16399, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.
horn is recorded at frequency rank #5,689, classified as anoun, pronounced /hɔːn/. hose is at rank #10,710, tagged as anoun, pronounced /həʊz/.
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 16399, this pair ranks #457,968 of 530,003 scored English confusable pairs - a relatively easy-to-tell-apart pair.
Orthographic DNA of horn vs hose
Shared letters: ho. Private to "horn": nr. Private to "hose": es.
"horn" · 4 letters · shape CVCC · "hose" · 4 letters · shape CVCV