HovshourWhich spelling fits?

Quick tell: Ho is a name, hour is a noun, so they fill different roles in a sentence.

Which to use

“Ho” is a name and “hour” is a noun - they look or sound alike but fill different roles in a sentence.

#8,268
“Ho” frequency rank
#34,613
“hour” frequency rank
42881
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature Ho hour
Definition Ciudad de Ghana Hora.

Where the eye mixes Ho and hour

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

2 ch
Ho
4 ch
hour

Why the eye confuses Ho with hour

These two trip readers on the page rather than in the ear: Ho is [ˈo] while hour is /ˈaʊ.ə(ɹ)/. Spoken aloud the problem disappears. In writing it persists, because they differ by 2 extra letter(s) - “Ho” sits inside “hour”, and the parts of speech differ too (name vs noun), which is usually the fastest check. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 42881, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

Ho is recorded at frequency rank #8,268, classified as aname, pronounced [ˈo]. hour is at rank #34,613, tagged as anoun, pronounced /ˈaʊ.ə(ɹ)/.

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 42881, this pair ranks #145,776 of 323,831 scored Spanish confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.

Orthographic DNA of Ho vs hour

Shared letters: ho. Private to "Ho": -. Private to "hour": ru.

"Ho" · 2 letters · shape CV  ·  "hour" · 4 letters · shape CVVC

Known mistypes of this pair

  • hourhhour · horu · hourr · huor · ohur

Frequently Asked Questions

Can "Ho" and "hour" be used interchangeably?
No - they are not even the same part of speech. "Ho" is a name and "hour" a noun, so a sentence built for one is usually ungrammatical with the other.
Which is more common, "Ho" or "hour"?
"Ho" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #8,268 in our Spanish list, against #34,613 for "hour". The two are close in frequency, so neither is a safe default; check the meaning rather than guessing.

Useful next steps

Eye-level mix-up between "Ho" and "hour" is sorted above. Next: full entries or other pairs that share a letter shape.

  • Full dictionary entry for "Ho" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "hour" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #145,776 of 323,831 scored Spanish confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "Ho" and "hour" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "hour vs hut". 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 #145,776 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