house

/haʊs/

//haʊs// noun

"house" is a 5-letter English headword indexed on PlainSpell.

The verdict

“house” is in the everyday core of English, ranked #186 in English word frequency and used as a noun.

#186
frequency rank, English
5
letters
6
tracked misspellings
20
confusable pairs

According to Wiktionary data (CC BY-SA, analyzed May 6, 2026) - A structure built or serving as an abode of human beings.

Visual similarity to commonly confused words

How many letter changes separate each confused pair (Levenshtein distance, normalized).

house vs hue
60% similar
house vs hse
60% similar
house vs Hus
40% similar

Source: PlainSpell confusable corpus (Wiktionary, CC BY-SA).

Key facts for house
PropertyValue
Headwordhouse
LanguageEnglish
Part of speechNoun
IPA/haʊs/
Letters5
Frequency rank#186
Misspellings tracked6
Confusable pairs20
SourceWiktionary (kaikki.org)

Where “house” sits in English frequency

Every-word frequency runs from the handful of words we use constantly (left) to the long tail used once in a blue moon (right). house lands here:

#1#100#1K#10K#100K
← used constantlyrarely used →

Scale is logarithmic (each tick is 10× rarer). Source: FrequencyWords open word-frequency list.

Spelling & Dictionary Insight

The English entry for house is 5 letters long, classified as a noun, and transcribed in the International Phonetic Alphabet as /haʊs/. Corpus data places it at rank #186 in overall English word frequency, putting it firmly in the everyday core of the language. Wiktionary records 25 distinct senses for this headword, so context determines which meaning a reader should apply.

Our generated misspelling index lists 6 likely wrong-spelling variants for house, with forms such as "hhouse", "hosue", and "houes". Every one of these variants traces to a single-character edit -- an added or dropped letter, a swapped consonant, or a vowel swap -- the kind of slip a spell-checker is built to catch. It also participates in 20 confusable-pair relationships, "hue", "hse", "Hus", and more, since the words sound or look close enough that writers reach for the wrong one mid-sentence.

Etymologically, the entry records: Etymology tree Proto-Indo-European *(s)kewH-der.? Proto-Germanic *hūsą Proto-West Germanic *hūs Old English hūs Middle English hous English house From Middle English hous, hus, from Old English hūs (“dwelling, shelter, house”), from Proto-West Germanic *hūs… The correct English form is house, spelled H-O-U-S-E.

Definition

  1. 1
    A structure built or serving as an abode of human beings.
  2. 2
    A structure built or serving as an abode of human beings.
  3. 3
    A container; a thing which houses another.
  4. 4
    Size and quality of residential accommodations; housing.
  5. 5
    A building intended to contain a single household, as opposed to an apartment or condominium or building containing these.
  6. 6
    The people who live in a house; a household.
  7. 7
    A building used for something other than a residence (typically with qualifying word).
  8. 8
    A building used for something other than a residence (typically with qualifying word).
  9. 9
    A building used for something other than a residence (typically with qualifying word).
  10. 10
    A building used for something other than a residence (typically with qualifying word).
  11. 11
    The audience for a live theatrical or similar performance.
  12. 12
    A building where a deliberative assembly meets; whence the assembly itself, particularly a component of a legislature.
  13. 13
    A dynasty; a family with its ancestors and descendants, especially a royal or noble one.
  14. 14
    A place of rest or repose.
  15. 15
    A grouping of schoolchildren for the purposes of competition in sports and other activities.
  16. 16
    An animal's shelter or den, or the shell of an animal such as a snail, used for protection.
  17. 17
    One of the twelve divisions of an astrological chart.
  18. 18
    The fourth Lenormand card.
  19. 19
    A square on a chessboard, regarded as the proper place of a piece.
  20. 20
    The four concentric circles where points are scored on the ice.
  21. 21
    Lotto; bingo.
  22. 22
    A children's game in which the players pretend to be members of a household.
  23. 23
    A small stand of trees in a swamp.
  24. 24
    A set of cells in a sudoku puzzle which must contain each digit exactly once, such as a row, column, or 3×3 box.
  25. 25
    The end zone.

Etymology

Etymology tree Proto-Indo-European *(s)kewH-der.? Proto-Germanic *hūsą Proto-West Germanic *hūs Old English hūs Middle English hous English house From Middle English hous, hus, from Old English hūs (“dwelling, shelter, house”), from Proto-West Germanic *hūs, from Proto-Germanic *hūsą (“house”), possibly from Proto-Indo-European *(s)kews-, from *(s)kewH- (“to cover, hide”). More at hose. Eclipsed non-native Middle English mees, meson, measoun (“house”), borrowed from Anglo-Norman mes, mies, meis, maisun (“house”). The uncommon plural form housen is from Middle English husen, housen. (The Old English nominative plural was simply hūs.) Cognates Cognate with Scots hoose, oos (“house”), Yola heouse, houze, howze (“house”), North Frisian hüs (“house”), Saterland Frisian Huus, Húus (“house”), West Frisian hûs (“house”), Alemannic German hous, hus, husch, hüs, hüüsch (“house”), Bavarian, Cimbrian, Mòcheno haus (“house”), Central Franconian Haus, Hous, Huus (“home”), Dutch huis (“house”), Dutch Low Saxon hoes, huus (“house”), German Haus, Hauß (“house”), German Low German Huus (“house”), Limburgish hoes, Huus (“house”), Luxembourgish Haus (“house”), Vilamovian haojs, haus, hoüz (“house”), Yiddish הויז (hoyz, “house”), Danish, Norwegian Bokmål, Norwegian Nynorsk hus (“house”), Elfdalian aus (“house”), Faroese, Icelandic hús (“house”), Swedish hus, hws (“house”), Crimean Gothic hus (“house”); also Cornish kudha (“to conceal, hide”), Welsh cuddio (“to hide”), Latin cutis (“human skin; hide, leather”), Ancient Greek κεύθω (keúthō, “to cover, hide”), Tocharian A kāc (“hide, skin”), Sanskrit स्कुनाति (skunāti, “to cover”).

Synonyms

This word in other languages

Common misspellings

Also misspelled as: hhouse,hosue,houes,housse,huose,ohuse

Misspelling Pattern Breakdown

How far each generated variant is from the correct spelling of house - measured in single-character edits (insert, delete, or substitute a letter). Larger bars are easier to catch; one-edit slips are the sneakiest.

hhouse1hosue2houes2housse1huose2ohuse2
Edit distance from "house"

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

How do you spell "house"?
"house" is spelled H-O-U-S-E. The IPA pronunciation is /haʊs/.
What does "house" mean?
As a noun, "house" means: A structure built or serving as an abode of human beings.
What words are commonly confused with "house"?
"house" is commonly confused with "hue", "hse", "Hus". These words look or sound similar but have different meanings. PlainSpell provides detailed comparisons for each pair.
How do you pronounce "house"?
The IPA (International Phonetic Alphabet) transcription for "house" is /haʊs/. Click the speaker icon on the pronunciation badge above to hear it spoken aloud where audio is available.
What is the origin of the word "house"?
Etymology tree Proto-Indo-European *(s)kewH-der.? Proto-Germanic *hūsą Proto-West Germanic *hūs Old English hūs Middle English hous English house From Middle English hous, hus, from Old English hūs (“dwelling, shelter, house”), from Proto-West Ger... See the full etymology section above for more details.
Is PlainSpell free to use?
Yes, PlainSpell is a completely free word reference. You can look up definitions, pronunciations, confusable pairs, homophones, and spelling corrections across 5 languages without any sign-up or subscription.

Using “house”

The practical upshot for anyone who landed here from a spell-check.

  • The one correct English spelling is H-O-U-S-E - every other letter order is a misspelling in standard orthography.
  • Say it as /haʊs/ (IPA); tap the speaker on the pronunciation badge to hear it where audio exists.
  • Don't mix it up with “hue” - see the side-by-side comparison. house vs hue
  • 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.

Source: Wiktionary (via kaikki.org) Structured Wiktionary extract

Source: FrequencyWords open word-frequency list FrequencyWords open word-frequency list