hoar
/hɔː/
"hoar" is a 4-letter English headword indexed on PlainSpell.
The verdict
“hoar” is uncommon English (frequency #70,748 among 2,646 “H” headwords), classed as a noun. The kind of spelling people second-guess.
- #70,748
- frequency rank, English
- 2,646
- “H” headwords
According to Wiktionary data (CC BY-SA, analyzed September 3, 2026) - A white or greyish-white colour.
Corpus desk
Index EN-hoar · hoar · English
hoar · rank #70,748 · 0 variants · 0 confusables
- FREQ-RARE #70,748
- LEN-MID 4 letters
- VOW-2 2 vowels
- CONFUS-0 No pairs
- VAR-0 0 variants
- BOOK-MID 2,646
- PHOTO-FINISH histidine
Nearest frequency peer: histidine (-1 rank slots)
Read with this headword: Spelling guide for this pattern
Desk codes from Wiktionary headword shape, FrequencyWords rank tier, confusable-pair count, generated misspelling depth, letter-cohort book size, and photo-finish peer. Not a difficulty grade.
Long-tail ranks near “hoar”
Sparse band: bars invert rank so rarer forms read shorter
- hird
hird
29,255 corpus weight
- histidine
histidine
29,254 corpus weight
- hoar
hoar
29,253 corpus weight
- hoeing
hoeing
29,252 corpus weight
- homebound
homebound
29,251 corpus weight
- homunculus
homunculus
29,250 corpus weight
What this shows Long-tail view: where “hoar” sits against similarly uncommon English ranks.
| Property | Value |
|---|---|
| Headword | hoar |
| Language | English |
| Part of speech | Noun |
| IPA | /hɔː/ |
| Letters | 4 |
| Frequency rank | #70,748 |
| Misspellings tracked | 0 |
| Confusable pairs | 0 |
| Source | Wiktionary (kaikki.org) |
Long-tail rank of “hoar” in English
Rare enough to double-check
hoar is uncommon English at frequency #70,748 among 2,646 “H” headwords, classed as anoun, transcribed /hɔː/. Rarity is why readers land here mid-draft. 2 senses are on record.
No generated misspelling entries exist for hoar in our index, and the word's spelling is regular enough that our generator found nothing worth flagging. This entry stands alone in our confusable dataset, a sign it's visually distinctive enough not to be mixed up with another word.
Etymologically, the entry records: From Middle English hor, hore, from Old English hār (“hoar, hoary, grey, old”), from Proto-West Germanic *hair, from Proto-Germanic *hairaz (“grey”), from Proto-Indo-European *(s)ḱeh₃- (“grey, dark”). Cognate with German hehr (“noble, sublime”), Herr (“sir,… The correct English form is hoar, spelled H-O-A-R.
Definition
- 1A white or greyish-white colour.
- 2Hoariness; antiquity.
Recorded use
Wiktionary exampleThese source excerpts show how hoar appears in context. They illustrate usage; the definition above remains the entry’s reference meaning.
His grants are engrafted on the public law of Europe, covered with the awful hoar of innumerable ages.
Etymology
From Middle English hor, hore, from Old English hār (“hoar, hoary, grey, old”), from Proto-West Germanic *hair, from Proto-Germanic *hairaz (“grey”), from Proto-Indo-European *(s)ḱeh₃- (“grey, dark”). Cognate with German hehr (“noble, sublime”), Herr (“sir, gentleman”), Scottish Gaelic ciar (“dusky”), and Russian се́рый (séryj, “grey”).
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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Similar English words by spelling shape
Same letter count and similar misspelling depth for "hoar", not the corpus desk frequency band.
Same letter count
Frequency-ranked English headwords with 4 letters (nearest by frequency rank).