hamacvshampeConfusable pair

Which to use

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

#37,356
“hamac” frequency rank
#46,204
“hampe” frequency rank
83560
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature hamac hampe
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. Long manche ou support, généralement en bois, d’un pinceau, d’une arme d’hast, d’une pertuisane, d’un épieu, d’un écouvillon ou d’un refouloir.

Where the eye mixes hamac and hampe

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

5 ch
hamac
5 ch
hampe

Visual trap between hamac and hampe

A purely visual mix-up. hamac (^((h aspiré))\a.mak\) and hampe (^((h aspiré))\ɑ̃p\) 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 83560, 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\. hampe is at rank #46,204, tagged as anoun, pronounced ^((h aspiré))\ɑ̃p\.

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 83560, this pair ranks #14,589 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - among the most confusable pairs.

Orthographic DNA of hamac vs hampe

Shared letters: ahm. Private to "hamac": c. Private to "hampe": ep.

"hamac" · 5 letters · shape CVCVC  ·  "hampe" · 5 letters · shape CVCCV

Known mistypes of this pair

  • hamacahmac · haamc · hamacc · hamca · hammac · hhamac · hmaac
  • hampeahmpe · hamep · hammpe · hamppe · hapme · hhampe · hmape

Frequently Asked Questions

Do "hamac" and "hampe" mean the same thing in a sentence?
No. They are said differently (^((h aspiré))\a.mak\ versus ^((h aspiré))\ɑ̃p\) and carry different meanings; reading the sentence aloud is usually enough to catch the wrong one.
Which is more common, "hamac" or "hampe"?
"hamac" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #37,356 in our French list, against #46,204 for "hampe". The two are close in frequency, so neither is a safe default; check the meaning rather than guessing.

After this comparison

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

  • Full dictionary entry for "hamac" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "hampe" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #14,589 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "hamac" and "hampe" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "hae vs hampe". 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 #14,589 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