horsevshotsWhat's the difference?

Which to use

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

#1,793
“horse” frequency rank
#37,029
“hots” frequency rank
38822
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature horse hots
Definition A hoofed mammal, Equus ferus caballus, often used throughout history for riding and draft work. A condition of physical attraction toward (for) someone.

Letter map: horse vs hots

Shared letters muted; letters that set horse and hots apart highlighted. Shared run: 3.

5 ch
horse
4 ch
hots

Spelling & Dictionary Insight

horse and hots are indexed as a confusable English pair. We have no recorded pronunciation or part of speech for both members, so the spelling overlap is what we can show you: they differ by 1 letter(s) in length. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 38822, 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/. hots is at rank #37,029, tagged as anoun.

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 38822, this pair ranks #282,381 of 530,003 scored English confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.

Orthographic DNA of horse vs hots

Shared letters: hos. Private to "horse": er. Private to "hots": t.

"horse" · 5 letters · shape CVCCV  ·  "hots" · 4 letters · shape CVCC

Known mistypes of this pair

  • horsehhorse · hores · horrse · horsse · hosre · hrose · ohrse
  • hotshhots · hotts · htos · ohts

Frequently Asked Questions

Can "horse" and "hots" be used interchangeably?
No. They differ by 1 letter(s) in length, but the dictionary glosses above give them different meanings, so swapping one for the other changes what the sentence says.
Which is more common, "horse" or "hots"?
"horse" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #1,793 in our English list, against #37,029 for "hots". That is a wide gap, so in ordinary text the rarer spelling is the one worth double-checking.

Source: Wiktionary (via kaikki.org) Structured Wiktionary extract

Source: FrequencyWords open word-frequency list