hamacvshammamConfusable pair

Which to use

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

#37,356
“hamac” frequency rank
#23,885
“hammam” frequency rank
61241
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature hamac hammam
Definition Lit formé d’un morceau de toile ou d’un filet, suspendu horizontalement à deux points fixes par ses extrémités, de manière à pouvoir se balancer, dormir ou se reposer. Établissement dans lequel on prend des bains de vapeur.

Where the eye mixes hamac and hammam

Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 4 letters in sequence. hamac runs 5 letters (CVCVC) against hammam's 6 (CVCCVC) - the length gap alone is often enough to separate them once you know to check it.

5 ch
hamac
6 ch
hammam

Why the eye confuses hamac with hammam

A purely visual mix-up. hamac (^((h aspiré))\a.mak\) and hammam (^((h aspiré))\a.mam\) 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 61241, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

hamac is recorded at frequency rank #37,356, classified as anoun, pronounced ^((h aspiré))\a.mak\. hammam is at rank #23,885, tagged as anoun, pronounced ^((h aspiré))\a.mam\.

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 61241, this pair ranks #93,314 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - among the most confusable pairs.

Orthographic DNA of hamac vs hammam

Shared letters: ahm. Private to "hamac": c. Private to "hammam": -.

"hamac" · 5 letters · shape CVCVC  ·  "hammam" · 6 letters · shape CVCCVC

Known mistypes of this pair

  • hamac ← ahmac · haamc · hamacc · hamca · hammac · hhamac · hmaac
  • hammam ← ahmmam · hamam · hamamm · hammamm · hammma · hhammam · hmamam

Frequently Asked Questions

Is swapping "hamac" for "hammam" ever safe?
No. They are said differently (^((h aspiré))\a.mak\ versus ^((h aspiré))\a.mam\) and carry different meanings; reading the sentence aloud is usually enough to catch the wrong one.
Which is more common, "hamac" or "hammam"?
"hammam" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #23,885 in our French list, against #37,356 for "hamac". The two are close in frequency, so neither is a safe default; check the meaning rather than guessing.

After this comparison

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

  • Full dictionary entry for "hamac" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "hammam" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #93,314 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "hamac" and "hammam" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "hamac vs Hamm". 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 #93,314 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