Which to use
“horse” and “hoses” are a confusable English pair: similar on the page, but distinct in meaning, check the gloss before you choose.
- #1,793
- “horse” frequency rank
- #29,312
- “hoses” frequency rank
- 31105
- confusion score
Side-by-Side Comparison
| Feature | horse | hoses |
|---|---|---|
| Definition | A hoofed mammal, Equus ferus caballus, often used throughout history for riding and draft work. | plural of hose |
Where the eye mixes horse and hoses
Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 4 letters in sequence.
Spelling & Dictionary Insight
A purely visual mix-up. horse (/hɔːs/) 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 share most of their letters but differ in 3 positions. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 31105, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.
horse is recorded at frequency rank #1,793, classified as anoun, pronounced /hɔːs/. 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 31105, this pair ranks #348,987 of 530,003 scored English confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.
Orthographic DNA of horse vs hoses
Shared letters: ehos. Private to "horse": r. Private to "hoses": -.
"horse" · 5 letters · shape CVCCV · "hoses" · 5 letters · shape CVCVC