haovshumoWhat's the difference?

Quick tell: hao is a intj, humo is a noun, so they fill different roles in a sentence.

Which to use

“hao” is an intj and “humo” is a noun - they look or sound alike but fill different roles in a sentence.

#40,863
“hao” frequency rank
#3,258
“humo” frequency rank
44121
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature hao humo
Definition Se usaba para llamar a uno que estuviese distante. Producto visible de una combustión incompleta, formado por partículas de carbono en suspensión en un medio gaseoso.

Where the eye mixes hao and humo

Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 2 letters in sequence. hao runs 3 letters (CVV) against humo's 4 (CVCV) - the length gap alone is often enough to separate them once you know to check it.

3 ch
hao
4 ch
humo

Look-alike desk: hao vs humo

These two trip readers on the page rather than in the ear: hao is [ˈao] while humo is [ˈumo]. Spoken aloud the problem disappears. In writing it persists, because they differ by 1 letter(s) in length, and the parts of speech differ too (intj vs noun), which is usually the fastest check. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 44121, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

hao is recorded at frequency rank #40,863, classified as anintj, pronounced [ˈao]. humo is at rank #3,258, tagged as anoun, pronounced [ˈumo].

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 44121, this pair ranks #138,793 of 323,831 scored Spanish confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.

Orthographic DNA of hao vs humo

Shared letters: ho. Private to "hao": a. Private to "humo": mu.

"hao" · 3 letters · shape CVV  ·  "humo" · 4 letters · shape CVCV

Known mistypes of this pair

  • humo ← hhumo · hmuo · hummo · huom · uhmo

Frequently Asked Questions

Is swapping "hao" for "humo" ever safe?
No - they are not even the same part of speech. "hao" is an intj and "humo" a noun, so a sentence built for one is usually ungrammatical with the other.
In ordinary Spanish text, does "hao" or "humo" show up more?
"humo" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #3,258 in our Spanish list, against #40,863 for "hao". That is a wide gap, so in ordinary text the rarer spelling is the one worth double-checking.

After this comparison

Visual near-miss handled. Browse the word pages or a neighbour when the next look-alike shows up.

  • Full dictionary entry for "hao" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "humo" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #138,793 of 323,831 scored Spanish confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "hao" and "humo" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "Hahn vs hao". 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 #138,793 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