harevsharemWhat's the difference?

Which to use

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

#36,876
“hare” frequency rank
#30,637
“harem” frequency rank
67513
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature hare harem
Definition Variante de hart. Gynécée chez les musulmans.

Where the spellings diverge

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

4 ch
hare
5 ch
harem

Spelling & Dictionary Insight

A purely visual mix-up. hare (\aʁ\) and harem (^((h aspiré))\a.ʁɛm\) 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 extra letter(s) - “hare” sits inside “harem”. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 67513, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

hare is recorded at frequency rank #36,876, classified as anoun, pronounced \aʁ\. harem is at rank #30,637, tagged as anoun, pronounced ^((h aspiré))\a.ʁɛm\.

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 67513, this pair ranks #63,127 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - among the most confusable pairs.

Orthographic DNA of hare vs harem

Shared letters: aehr. Private to "hare": -. Private to "harem": m.

"hare" · 4 letters · shape CVCV  ·  "harem" · 5 letters · shape CVCVC

Known mistypes of this pair

  • hareahre · haer · harre · hhare · hrae
  • haremahrem · haerm · haremm · harme · harrem · hharem · hraem

Frequency comparison

hare#36,876
harem#30,637

Source: FrequencyWords open word-frequency list

Frequently Asked Questions

Can "hare" and "harem" be used interchangeably?
No. They are said differently (\aʁ\ versus ^((h aspiré))\a.ʁɛm\) and carry different meanings; reading the sentence aloud is usually enough to catch the wrong one.
Which is more common, "hare" or "harem"?
"harem" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #30,637 in our French list, against #36,876 for "hare". The two are close in frequency, so neither is a safe default; check the meaning rather than guessing.

Remembering hare vs harem

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 “hare” 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