horavshoursConfusable pair

Which to use

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

#286
“hora” frequency rank
#34,614
“hours” frequency rank
34900
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature hora hours
Definition Cada una de las 24 partes de igual duración en que se divide el día, a su vez subdivididas cada una de ellas en 60 minutos. Forma del plural de hour.

Where the eye mixes hora and hours

Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 3 letters in sequence.

4 ch
hora
5 ch
hours

Visual trap between hora and hours

A purely visual mix-up. hora ([ˈoɾa]) and hours (/ˈaʊəz/) 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 1 letter(s) in length. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 34900, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

hora is recorded at frequency rank #286, classified as anoun, pronounced [ˈoɾa]. hours is at rank #34,614, tagged as anoun, pronounced /ˈaʊəz/.

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 34900, this pair ranks #188,949 of 323,831 scored Spanish confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.

Orthographic DNA of hora vs hours

Shared letters: hor. Private to "hora": a. Private to "hours": su.

"hora" · 4 letters · shape CVCV  ·  "hours" · 5 letters · shape CVVCC

Known mistypes of this pair

  • horahhora · hoar · horra · hroa · ohra
  • hourshhours · horus · hourrs · hourss · housr · huors · ohurs

Frequently Asked Questions

Is swapping "hora" for "hours" ever safe?
No. They are said differently ([ˈoɾa] versus /ˈaʊəz/) and carry different meanings; reading the sentence aloud is usually enough to catch the wrong one.
In ordinary Spanish text, does "hora" or "hours" show up more?
"hora" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #286 in our Spanish list, against #34,614 for "hours". That is a wide gap, so in ordinary text the rarer spelling is the one worth double-checking.

What to do next

Pronunciation already separates them, if the page still looks alike, the dictionary links below settle it.

  • Full dictionary entry for "hora" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "hours" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #188,949 of 323,831 scored Spanish confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "hora" and "hours" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "horn vs hours". 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 #188,949 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