henvshuntWhat's the difference?

Which to use

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

#46,208
“hen” frequency rank
#15,645
“hunt” frequency rank
61853
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature hen hunt
Definition Poule. Chasse.

Where the eye mixes hen and hunt

Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 2 letters in sequence. hen runs 3 letters (CVC) against hunt's 4 (CVCC) - the length gap alone is often enough to separate them once you know to check it.

3 ch
hen
4 ch
hunt

Why the eye confuses hen with hunt

A purely visual mix-up. hen (\ˈhɛn\) and hunt (\hʌnt\) 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 61853, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

hen is recorded at frequency rank #46,208, classified as anoun, pronounced \ˈhɛn\. hunt is at rank #15,645, tagged as anoun, pronounced \hʌnt\.

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 61853, this pair ranks #90,089 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - among the most confusable pairs.

Orthographic DNA of hen vs hunt

Shared letters: hn. Private to "hen": e. Private to "hunt": tu.

"hen" · 3 letters · shape CVC  ·  "hunt" · 4 letters · shape CVCC

Known mistypes of this pair

  • hunt ← hhunt · hnut · hunnt · huntt · hutn · uhnt

Frequently Asked Questions

Is swapping "hen" for "hunt" ever safe?
No. They are said differently (\ˈhɛn\ versus \hʌnt\) and carry different meanings; reading the sentence aloud is usually enough to catch the wrong one.
Which is more common, "hen" or "hunt"?
"hunt" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #15,645 in our French list, against #46,208 for "hen". 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 "hen" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "hunt" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #90,089 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "hen" and "hunt" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "hae vs hen". 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 #90,089 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