Which to use
“hummus” and “humps” are a confusable English pair: similar on the page, but distinct in meaning, check the gloss before you choose.
- #28,952
- “hummus” frequency rank
- #49,408
- “humps” frequency rank
- 78360
- confusion score
Side-by-Side Comparison
| Feature | hummus | humps |
|---|---|---|
| Definition | A Levantine Arab dip made of chickpea paste with various additions, such as olive oil, fresh garlic, lemon juice, and tahini, often eaten with pitta bread, or as a meze. | plural of hump |
Where the eye mixes hummus and humps
Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 4 letters in sequence. hummus runs 6 letters (CVCCVC) against humps's 5 (CVCCC) - the length gap alone is often enough to separate them once you know to check it.
Why the eye confuses hummus with humps
A purely visual mix-up. hummus (/ˈhʊməs/) and humps (/hʌmps/) are said differently, so reading them aloud is the quickest way to catch the wrong one. On the page they stay close: they differ by 1 letter(s) in length. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 78360, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.
hummus is recorded at frequency rank #28,952, classified as anoun, pronounced /ˈhʊməs/. humps is at rank #49,408, tagged as anoun, pronounced /hʌmps/.
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 78360, this pair ranks #24,813 of 530,003 scored English confusable pairs - among the most confusable pairs.
Orthographic DNA of hummus vs humps
Shared letters: hmsu. Private to "hummus": -. Private to "humps": p.
"hummus" · 6 letters · shape CVCCVC · "humps" · 5 letters · shape CVCCC
Known mistypes of this pair
Frequently Asked Questions
Do "hummus" and "humps" mean the same thing in a sentence?
Which is more common, "hummus" or "humps"?
What to do next
Visual near-miss handled. Browse the word pages or a neighbour when the next look-alike shows up.
- Full dictionary entry for "hummus" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
- Full dictionary entry for "humps" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
- This pair ranks #24,813 of 530,003 scored English confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
- "hummus" and "humps" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "Harps vs humps". 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 #24,813 of 530,003 scored English pairs, corpus vintage 2026-09-03, not spelling advice.