hamvshanWhat's the difference?

Which to use

“ham” and “han” are a confusable Spanish pair: similar on the page, but distinct in meaning, check the gloss before you choose.

#27,626
“ham” frequency rank
#85
“han” frequency rank
27711
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature ham han
Definition Jamón. Grupo étnico de China. Constituyen el 92% de la República Popular China, 98% en Taiwán, 75% en Singapur y aproximadamente el 20% de la población mundial.

Where the eye mixes ham and han

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

3 ch
ham
3 ch
han

Visual trap between ham and han

A purely visual mix-up. ham (/hæm/) and han ([ˈãn]) 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 a single letter - m in “ham” becomes n in “han”. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 27711, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

ham is recorded at frequency rank #27,626, classified as anoun, pronounced /hæm/. han is at rank #85, tagged as anoun, pronounced [ˈãn].

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 27711, this pair ranks #225,493 of 323,831 scored Spanish confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.

Orthographic DNA of ham vs han

Shared letters: ah. Private to "ham": m. Private to "han": n.

"ham" · 3 letters · shape CVC  ·  "han" · 3 letters · shape CVC

Frequently Asked Questions

Is swapping "ham" for "han" ever safe?
No. They are said differently (/hæm/ versus [ˈãn]) and carry different meanings; reading the sentence aloud is usually enough to catch the wrong one.
In ordinary Spanish text, does "ham" or "han" show up more?
"han" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #85 in our Spanish list, against #27,626 for "ham". That is a wide gap, so in ordinary text the rarer spelling is the one worth double-checking.

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 "ham" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "han" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #225,493 of 323,831 scored Spanish confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "ham" and "han" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "Hahn vs ham". Nearby pair

Confusion rank #225,493 of 323,831 scored Spanish pairs, corpus vintage 2026-09-03, not spelling advice.

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

Source: FrequencyWords open word-frequency list