haovshkTell them apart

Quick tell: hao is a verb, hk is a symbol, so they fill different roles in a sentence.

Which to use

“hao” is a verb and “hk” is a symbol - they look or sound alike but fill different roles in a sentence.

#43,972
“hao” frequency rank
#24,998
“hk” frequency rank
68970
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature hao hk
Definition Diminuer; s’épuiser; se consumer. Symbole du préfixe hectokilo-, signifiant 10⁵.

Letter map: hao vs hk

Shared letters muted; letters that set hao and hk apart highlighted. Shared run: 1.

3 ch
hao
2 ch
hk

Part-of-speech tell for hao / hk

Our dataset has no pronunciation recorded for both members, so the reliable separator here is grammatical: hao is averb and hkasymbol. On the page they differ by 1 letter(s) in length. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 68970, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

hao is recorded at frequency rank #43,972, classified as averb, pronounced \haɔ˦\. hk is at rank #24,998, tagged as asymbol.

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 68970, this pair ranks #56,998 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - among the most confusable pairs.

Orthographic DNA of hao vs hk

Shared letters: h. Private to "hao": ao. Private to "hk": k.

"hao" · 3 letters · shape CVV  ·  "hk" · 2 letters · shape CC

Frequently Asked Questions

Is swapping "hao" for "hk" ever safe?
No - they are not even the same part of speech. "hao" is a verb and "hk" a symbol, so a sentence built for one is usually ungrammatical with the other.
In ordinary French text, does "hao" or "hk" show up more?
"hk" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #24,998 in our French list, against #43,972 for "hao". The two are close in frequency, so neither is a safe default; check the meaning rather than guessing.

Useful next steps

Pair "hao" vs "hk" is on the table, pick a follow-up below.

  • Full dictionary entry for "hao" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "hk" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #56,998 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "hao" and "hk" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "hao vs hash". Nearby pair

Confusion rank #56,998 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