Which to use
“hour” is a noun and “hurt” is a verb - they look or sound alike but fill different roles in a sentence.
- #675
- “hour” frequency rank
- #1,224
- “hurt” frequency rank
- 1899
- confusion score
Side-by-Side Comparison
| Feature | hour | hurt |
|---|---|---|
| Definition | A unit of time of one twenty-fourth of a day (sixty minutes). | To cause (a person or animal) physical pain and/or injury. |
Where the eye mixes hour and hurt
Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 3 letters in sequence.
Spelling & Dictionary Insight
These two trip readers on the page rather than in the ear: hour is /aʊə/ while hurt is /hɜːt/. Spoken aloud the problem disappears. In writing it persists, because they share most of their letters but differ in 3 positions, and the parts of speech differ too (noun vs verb), which is usually the fastest check. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 1899, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.
hour is recorded at frequency rank #675, classified as anoun, pronounced /aʊə/. hurt is at rank #1,224, tagged as averb, pronounced /hɜːt/.
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 1899, this pair ranks #526,352 of 530,003 scored English confusable pairs - a relatively easy-to-tell-apart pair.
Orthographic DNA of hour vs hurt
Shared letters: hru. Private to "hour": o. Private to "hurt": t.
"hour" · 4 letters · shape CVVC · "hurt" · 4 letters · shape CVCC