hosesvshusksWhat's the difference?

Which to use

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

#29,312
“hoses” frequency rank
#46,530
“husks” frequency rank
75842
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature hoses husks
Definition plural of hose plural of husk

Where the eye mixes hoses and husks

Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 3 letters in sequence. hoses (CVCVC) and husks (CVCCC) run the same length but a different consonant-vowel pattern - the shape difference is usually the fastest tell.

5 ch
hoses
5 ch
husks

Look-alike desk: hoses vs husks

A purely visual mix-up. hoses (/ˈhəʊzɪz/) and husks (/hʌsks/) 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 75842, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

hoses is recorded at frequency rank #29,312, classified as anoun, pronounced /ˈhəʊzɪz/. husks is at rank #46,530, tagged as anoun, pronounced /hʌsks/.

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 75842, this pair ranks #31,865 of 530,003 scored English confusable pairs - among the most confusable pairs.

Orthographic DNA of hoses vs husks

Shared letters: hs. Private to "hoses": eo. Private to "husks": ku.

"hoses" · 5 letters · shape CVCVC  ·  "husks" · 5 letters · shape CVCCC

Known mistypes of this pair

  • hoses ← hhoses · hoess · hosess · hosses · ohses
  • husks ← hhusks · hsuks · hukss · huskks · huskss · hussks · uhsks

Frequently Asked Questions

Do "hoses" and "husks" mean the same thing in a sentence?
No. They are said differently (/ˈhəʊzɪz/ versus /hʌsks/) and carry different meanings; reading the sentence aloud is usually enough to catch the wrong one.
Which is more common, "hoses" or "husks"?
"hoses" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #29,312 in our English list, against #46,530 for "husks". The two are close in frequency, so neither is a safe default; check the meaning rather than guessing.

After this comparison

Eye-level mix-up between "hoses" and "husks" is sorted above. Next: full entries or other pairs that share a letter shape.

  • Full dictionary entry for "hoses" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "husks" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #31,865 of 530,003 scored English confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "hoses" and "husks" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "humps vs husks". Nearby pair
  • Recorded mistypes exist for at least one side of this pair, useful when a spell-checker or OCR lands on the wrong form. See mistypes

Confusion rank #31,865 of 530,003 scored English pairs, corpus vintage 2026-09-03, not spelling advice.

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

Source: FrequencyWords open word-frequency list