hackvshashTell them apart

Which to use

“hack” and “hash” are a confusable French pair: similar on the page, but distinct in meaning, check the gloss before you choose.

#24,232
“hack” frequency rank
#49,122
“hash” frequency rank
73354
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature hack hash
Definition Piratage informatique. Haschich.

Where the eye mixes hack and hash

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

4 ch
hack
4 ch
hash

Look-alike desk: hack vs hash

A purely visual mix-up. hack (^((h aspiré))\ak\) and hash (^((h aspiré))\aʃ\) 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 2 positions. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 73354, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

hack is recorded at frequency rank #24,232, classified as anoun, pronounced ^((h aspiré))\ak\. hash is at rank #49,122, tagged as anoun, pronounced ^((h aspiré))\aʃ\.

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 73354, this pair ranks #40,753 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - among the most confusable pairs.

Orthographic DNA of hack vs hash

Shared letters: ah. Private to "hack": ck. Private to "hash": s.

"hack" · 4 letters · shape CVCC  ·  "hash" · 4 letters · shape CVCC

Known mistypes of this pair

  • hackahck · hacck · hackk · hakc · hcak · hhack
  • hashahsh · hahs · hashh · hassh · hhash

Frequently Asked Questions

Is swapping "hack" for "hash" ever safe?
No. They are said differently (^((h aspiré))\ak\ versus ^((h aspiré))\aʃ\) and carry different meanings; reading the sentence aloud is usually enough to catch the wrong one.
Frequency check: "hack" vs "hash" - which ranks higher?
"hack" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #24,232 in our French list, against #49,122 for "hash". The two are close in frequency, so neither is a safe default; check the meaning rather than guessing.

What to do next

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

  • Full dictionary entry for "hack" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "hash" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #40,753 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "hack" and "hash" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "hae vs hash". 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 #40,753 of 440,172 scored French pairs, corpus vintage 2026-09-03, not spelling advice.

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

Source: FrequencyWords open word-frequency list