Which to use
“horse” and “hours” are a confusable English pair: similar on the page, but distinct in meaning, check the gloss before you choose.
- #1,793
- “horse” frequency rank
- #388
- “hours” frequency rank
- 2181
- confusion score
Side-by-Side Comparison
| Feature | horse | hours |
|---|---|---|
| Definition | A hoofed mammal, Equus ferus caballus, often used throughout history for riding and draft work. | plural of hour |
Where the eye mixes horse and hours
Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 4 letters in sequence.
Spelling & Dictionary Insight
A purely visual mix-up. horse (/hɔːs/) and hours (/ˈaʊə(ɹ)z/) 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 2181, 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/. hours is at rank #388, tagged as anoun, pronounced /ˈaʊə(ɹ)z/.
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 2181, this pair ranks #525,659 of 530,003 scored English confusable pairs - a relatively easy-to-tell-apart pair.
Orthographic DNA of horse vs hours
Shared letters: hors. Private to "horse": e. Private to "hours": u.
"horse" · 5 letters · shape CVCCV · "hours" · 5 letters · shape CVVCC