horsesvshossWhat's the difference?

Which to use

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

#3,306
“horses” frequency rank
#46,520
“hoss” frequency rank
49826
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature horses hoss
Definition plural of horse Pronunciation spelling of horse.

Where the eye mixes horses and hoss

Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 4 letters in sequence.

6 ch
horses
4 ch
hoss

Spelling & Dictionary Insight

A purely visual mix-up. horses (/ˈhoɹsɪz/) and hoss (/hɔːs/) 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 2 letter(s) in length. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 49826, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

horses is recorded at frequency rank #3,306, classified as anoun, pronounced /ˈhoɹsɪz/. hoss is at rank #46,520, tagged as anoun, pronounced /hɔːs/.

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 49826, this pair ranks #179,911 of 530,003 scored English confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.

Orthographic DNA of horses vs hoss

Shared letters: hos. Private to "horses": er. Private to "hoss": -.

"horses" · 6 letters · shape CVCCVC  ·  "hoss" · 4 letters · shape CVCC

Known mistypes of this pair

  • horseshhorses · horess · horrses · horsess · horsses · hosres · hroses · ohrses
  • hosshhoss · hsos · ohss

Frequently Asked Questions

Can "horses" and "hoss" be used interchangeably?
No. They are said differently (/ˈhoɹsɪz/ versus /hɔːs/) and carry different meanings; reading the sentence aloud is usually enough to catch the wrong one.
Which is more common, "horses" or "hoss"?
"horses" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #3,306 in our English list, against #46,520 for "hoss". 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