horsevshoursWhat's the difference?

Which to use

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

#36,085
“horse” frequency rank
#34,614
“hours” frequency rank
70699
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature horse hours
Definition Caballo, equino. Forma del plural de hour.

Where the spellings diverge

Shared letters are muted; the letters that actually set horse and hours apart are highlighted. They share 4 letters in sequence, which is exactly why the eye skips the difference.

5 ch
horse
5 ch
hours

Spelling & Dictionary Insight

A purely visual mix-up. horse (/hɔːs/) 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 share most of their letters but differ in 3 positions. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 70699, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

horse is recorded at frequency rank #36,085, classified as anoun, pronounced /hɔːs/. 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 70699, this pair ranks #29,121 of 323,831 scored Spanish confusable pairs - among the most confusable pairs.

Orthographic DNA of horse vs hours

Shared letters: hors. Private to "horse": e. Private to "hours": u.

"horse" · 5 letters · shape CVCCV  ·  "hours" · 5 letters · shape CVVCC

Known mistypes of this pair

  • horsehhorse · horce · hores · horrse · horsse · hosre · hrose · ohrse
  • hourshhours · horus · hourrs · hourss · housr · huors · ohurs

Frequency comparison

horse#36,085
hours#34,614

Source: FrequencyWords open word-frequency list

Frequently Asked Questions

Can "horse" and "hours" be used interchangeably?
No. They are said differently (/hɔːs/ versus /ˈaʊəz/) and carry different meanings; reading the sentence aloud is usually enough to catch the wrong one.
Which is more common, "horse" or "hours"?
"hours" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #34,614 in our Spanish list, against #36,085 for "horse". The two are close in frequency, so neither is a safe default; check the meaning rather than guessing.

Remembering horse vs hours

The fastest way to pick the right one every time.

  • Read both glosses above and match the meaning you intend, only context separates this pair.
  • See each word in full, definition, IPA, etymology and its other confusables. Full “horse” entry
  • Browse more pairs most likely to be confused. Most confusable

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

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