HOV vs hove, What's the Difference?

Which to use

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

#47,679
“HOV” frequency rank: #27,871
“hove” frequency rank: 75550
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature	HOV	hove
Definition	Initialism of high-occupancy vehicle.	To remain suspended in air, water etc.; to float, to hover.

Where the spellings diverge

Shared letters are muted; the letters that actually set HOV and hove apart are highlighted. They share 3 letters in sequence, which is exactly why the eye skips the difference.

3 ch

HOV

4 ch

hove

Spelling & Dictionary Insight

These two trip readers on the page rather than in the ear: HOV is /eɪt͡ʃ əʊ ˈviː/ while hove is /həʊv/. Spoken aloud the problem disappears. In writing it persists, because they differ by 1 extra letter(s) - “HOV” sits inside “hove”, and the parts of speech differ too (noun vs verb), which is usually the fastest check. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 75550, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

HOV is recorded at frequency rank #47,679, classified as anoun, pronounced /eɪt͡ʃ əʊ ˈviː/. hove is at rank #27,871, tagged as averb, pronounced /həʊv/.

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 75550, this pair ranks #32,772 of 530,003 scored English confusable pairs - among the most confusable pairs.

Orthographic DNA of HOV vs hove

Shared letters: hov. Private to "HOV": -. Private to "hove": e.

"HOV" · 3 letters · shape CVC · "hove" · 4 letters · shape CVCV

Known mistypes of this pair

hove ← hhove · hoev · hovve · hvoe · ohve

Frequency comparison

HOV#47,679

hove#27,871

Source: FrequencyWords open word-frequency list

Frequently Asked Questions

Can "HOV" and "hove" be used interchangeably?

No - they are not even the same part of speech. "HOV" is a noun and "hove" a verb, so a sentence built for one is usually ungrammatical with the other.

Which is more common, "HOV" or "hove"?

"hove" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #27,871 in our English list, against #47,679 for "HOV". The two are close in frequency, so neither is a safe default; check the meaning rather than guessing.

Remembering HOV vs hove

The fastest way to pick the right one every time.

Check the role first: if you need a noun, it's “HOV”; for a verb, it's “hove”.
See each word in full, definition, IPA, etymology and its other confusables. Full “HOV” entry
Browse more pairs most likely to be confused. Most confusable