his
/ɪ̈z/
"his" is a 3-letter English headword indexed on PlainSpell.
The verdict
“his” is in the everyday core of English, ranked #34 in English word frequency and used as a determiner.
- #34
- frequency rank, English
- 3
- letters
- 20
- confusable pairs
According to Wiktionary data (CC BY-SA, analyzed May 6, 2026) - Belonging to him.
Visual similarity to commonly confused words
How many letter changes separate each confused pair (Levenshtein distance, normalized).
Source: PlainSpell confusable corpus (Wiktionary, CC BY-SA).
| Property | Value |
|---|---|
| Headword | his |
| Language | English |
| Part of speech | Determiner |
| IPA | /ɪ̈z/ |
| Letters | 3 |
| Frequency rank | #34 |
| Misspellings tracked | 0 |
| Confusable pairs | 20 |
| Source | Wiktionary (kaikki.org) |
Where “his” sits in English frequency
Spelling & Dictionary Insight
The English entry for his is 3 letters long, classified as a determiner, and transcribed in the International Phonetic Alphabet as /ɪ̈z/. Corpus data places it at rank #34 in overall English word frequency, putting it firmly in the everyday core of the language. Wiktionary records 4 distinct senses for this headword, so context determines which meaning a reader should apply.
his doesn't appear in our generated misspelling index, suggesting the orthography follows predictable English patterns. It also participates in 20 confusable-pair relationships, "ho", "HR", "HP", and more, a pairing that trips writers up because the two words share enough sound or shape to blur together.
Etymologically, the entry records: From Middle English his, from Old English his (“his; its”), from Proto-Germanic *hes (“of this”), genitive of Proto-Germanic *hiz (“this, this one”), from Proto-Indo-European *ḱe-, *ḱey- (“this”). Cognate with Danish, Swedish, Norwegian, Icelandic hans (“hi… The correct English form is his, spelled H-I-S.
Definition
- 1Belonging to him.
- 2Belonging to a person of unspecified gender.
- 3Its; belonging to it. (Now only when implying personification.)
- 4Used as a genitive marker in place of ’s after a noun, especially a masculine noun ending in -s, to express the possessive case.
Etymology
From Middle English his, from Old English his (“his; its”), from Proto-Germanic *hes (“of this”), genitive of Proto-Germanic *hiz (“this, this one”), from Proto-Indo-European *ḱe-, *ḱey- (“this”). Cognate with Danish, Swedish, Norwegian, Icelandic hans (“his”). More at he; see also its.
This word in other languages
Definitions, pronunciation, and etymology for this entry are drawn from Wiktionary via the kaikki.org structured extract (CC BY-SA); frequency ordering uses the FrequencyWords open word-frequency list (2018 English corpus, MIT). See the methodology for how each field is sourced and updated.
Frequently Asked Questions
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Using “his”
The practical upshot for anyone who landed here from a spell-check.
- The one correct English spelling is H-I-S - every other letter order is a misspelling in standard orthography.
- Say it as /ɪ̈z/ (IPA); tap the speaker on the pronunciation badge to hear it where audio exists.
- Don't mix it up with “ho” - see the side-by-side comparison. his vs ho
- Browse more English words and confusable pairs in the same reference. English words
Data Source
Wiktionary (via kaikki.org), licensed under CC BY-SA & GFDL. Word ordering uses an open word-frequency list; misspelling variants are generated by edit-distance from the correct headword.