hotsvshurtsWhich spelling fits?

Quick tell: hots is a noun, hurts is a verb, so they fill different roles in a sentence.

Which to use

“hots” is a noun and “hurts” is a verb - they look or sound alike but fill different roles in a sentence.

#37,029
“hots” frequency rank
#4,309
“hurts” frequency rank
41338
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature hots hurts
Definition A condition of physical attraction toward (for) someone. third-person singular simple present indicative of hurt

Letter map: hots vs hurts

Shared letters muted; letters that set hots and hurts apart highlighted. Shared run: 3. hots runs 4 letters (CVCC) against hurts's 5 (CVCCC) - the length gap alone is often enough to separate them once you know to check it.

4 ch
hots
5 ch
hurts

Part-of-speech tell for hots / hurts

Our dataset has no pronunciation recorded for both members, so the reliable separator here is grammatical: hots is anoun and hurtsaverb. On the page they differ by 1 letter(s) in length. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 41338, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

hots is recorded at frequency rank #37,029, classified as anoun. hurts is at rank #4,309, tagged as averb, pronounced /hɜːts/.

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 41338, this pair ranks #259,359 of 530,003 scored English confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.

Orthographic DNA of hots vs hurts

Shared letters: hst. Private to "hots": o. Private to "hurts": ru.

"hots" · 4 letters · shape CVCC  ·  "hurts" · 5 letters · shape CVCCC

Known mistypes of this pair

  • hots ← hhots · hotts · htos · ohts
  • hurts ← hhurts · hruts · hurrts · hurtss · hurtts · hutrs · uhrts

Frequently Asked Questions

Do "hots" and "hurts" mean the same thing in a sentence?
No - they are not even the same part of speech. "hots" is a noun and "hurts" a verb, so a sentence built for one is usually ungrammatical with the other.
Which is more common, "hots" or "hurts"?
"hurts" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #4,309 in our English list, against #37,029 for "hots". The two are close in frequency, so neither is a safe default; check the meaning rather than guessing.

After this comparison

You've compared "hots" and "hurts". Here's where to go from here.

  • Full dictionary entry for "hots" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "hurts" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #259,359 of 530,003 scored English confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "hots" and "hurts" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "hoke vs hots". 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 #259,359 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