huivshungConfusable pair

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

Which to use

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

#22,115
“hui” frequency rank
#5,052
“hung” frequency rank
27167
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature hui hung
Definition A Māori social gathering or assembly. simple past and past participle of hang (except when referring to the method of execution; there, hanged is used instead)

Where the eye mixes hui and hung

Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 2 letters in sequence.

3 ch
hui
4 ch
hung

Visual trap between hui and hung

These two trip readers on the page rather than in the ear: hui is /ˈhʉː.iː/ while hung is /ˈhʌŋ/. Spoken aloud the problem disappears. In writing it persists, because they differ by 1 letter(s) in length, and the parts of speech differ too (noun vs verb), which is usually the fastest check. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 27167, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

hui is recorded at frequency rank #22,115, classified as anoun, pronounced /ˈhʉː.iː/. hung is at rank #5,052, tagged as averb, pronounced /ˈhʌŋ/.

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 27167, this pair ranks #381,073 of 530,003 scored English confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.

Orthographic DNA of hui vs hung

Shared letters: hu. Private to "hui": i. Private to "hung": gn.

"hui" · 3 letters · shape CVV  ·  "hung" · 4 letters · shape CVCC

Known mistypes of this pair

  • hunghhung · hnug · hugn · hungg · hunng · uhng

Frequently Asked Questions

Do "hui" and "hung" mean the same thing in a sentence?
No - they are not even the same part of speech. "hui" is a noun and "hung" a verb, so a sentence built for one is usually ungrammatical with the other.
Frequency check: "hui" vs "hung" - which ranks higher?
"hung" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #5,052 in our English list, against #22,115 for "hui". The two are close in frequency, so neither is a safe default; check the meaning rather than guessing.

After this comparison

Pronunciation already separates them, if the page still looks alike, the dictionary links below settle it.

  • Full dictionary entry for "hui" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "hung" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #381,073 of 530,003 scored English confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "hui" and "hung" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "HIIT vs hui". 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 #381,073 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