Which to use
“hospitable” is an adjective and “hospital” is a noun - they look or sound alike but fill different roles in a sentence.
- #30,451
- “hospitable” frequency rank
- #905
- “hospital” frequency rank
- 31356
- confusion score
Side-by-Side Comparison
| Feature | hospitable | hospital |
|---|---|---|
| Definition | cordial and generous towards guests | A large medical facility, usually in a building with multiple floors, where seriously ill or injured patients are given extensive medical or surgical treatment. |
Where the eye mixes hospitable and hospital
Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 8 letters in sequence. hospitable runs 10 letters (CVCCVCVCCV) against hospital's 8 (CVCCVCVC) - the length gap alone is often enough to separate them once you know to check it.
Look-alike desk: hospitable vs hospital
These two trip readers on the page rather than in the ear: hospitable is /hɒsˈpɪtəbl̩/ while hospital is /ˈhɒs.pɪ.tl̩/. Spoken aloud the problem disappears. In writing it persists, because they differ by 2 letter(s) in length, and the parts of speech differ too (adjective vs noun), which is usually the fastest check. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 31356, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.
hospitable is recorded at frequency rank #30,451, classified as anadj, pronounced /hɒsˈpɪtəbl̩/. hospital is at rank #905, tagged as anoun, pronounced /ˈhɒs.pɪ.tl̩/.
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 31356, this pair ranks #346,846 of 530,003 scored English confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.
Orthographic DNA of hospitable vs hospital
Shared letters: ahilopst. Private to "hospitable": be. Private to "hospital": -.
"hospitable" · 10 letters · shape CVCCVCVCCV · "hospital" · 8 letters · shape CVCCVCVC
Known mistypes of this pair
- hospitable ← hhospitable · hopsitable · hosiptable · hospiatble · hospitabble · hospitabel · hospitablle · hospitalbe
- hospital ← hhospital · hopsital · hosiptal · hospiatl · hospitall · hospitla · hospittal · hosppital
Frequently Asked Questions
Can "hospitable" and "hospital" be used interchangeably?
In ordinary English text, does "hospitable" or "hospital" show up more?
Useful next steps
Eye-level mix-up between "hospitable" and "hospital" is sorted above. Next: full entries or other pairs that share a letter shape.
- Full dictionary entry for "hospitable" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
- Full dictionary entry for "hospital" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
- This pair ranks #346,846 of 530,003 scored English confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
- 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 #346,846 of 530,003 scored English pairs, corpus vintage 2026-09-03, not spelling advice.