Which to use
“Hou” is a name and “hours” is a noun - they look or sound alike but fill different roles in a sentence.
- #25,415
- “Hou” frequency rank
- #388
- “hours” frequency rank
- 25803
- confusion score
Side-by-Side Comparison
| Feature | Hou | hours |
|---|---|---|
| Definition | A surname from Chinese. | plural of hour |
Letter map: Hou vs hours
Shared letters muted; letters that set Hou and hours apart highlighted. Shared run: 3.
Grammar separator: Hou vs hours
Our dataset has no pronunciation recorded for both members, so the reliable separator here is grammatical: Hou is aname and hoursanoun. On the page they differ by 2 extra letter(s) - “Hou” sits inside “hours”. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 25803, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.
Hou is recorded at frequency rank #25,415, classified as aname. 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 25803, this pair ranks #391,489 of 530,003 scored English confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.
Orthographic DNA of Hou vs hours
Shared letters: hou. Private to "Hou": -. Private to "hours": rs.
"Hou" · 3 letters · shape CVV · "hours" · 5 letters · shape CVVCC
Known mistypes of this pair
- hours ← hhours · hourrs · hourss · housr · huors · ohurs
Frequently Asked Questions
Do "Hou" and "hours" mean the same thing in a sentence?
Frequency check: "Hou" vs "hours" - which ranks higher?
What to do next
You've compared "Hou" and "hours". Here's where to go from here.
- Full dictionary entry for "Hou" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
- Full dictionary entry for "hours" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
- This pair ranks #391,489 of 530,003 scored English confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
- "Hou" and "hours" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "hoke vs Hou". 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 #391,489 of 530,003 scored English pairs, corpus vintage 2026-09-03, not spelling advice.