hermèsvshordesTell them apart

Which to use

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

#17,971
“hermès” frequency rank
#23,887
“hordes” frequency rank
41858
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature hermès hordes
Definition Pilier portant une tête de Hermès. Pluriel de horde.

Where the eye mixes hermès and hordes

Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 3 letters in sequence. hermès and hordes follow the identical consonant-vowel pattern (CVCCVC). Same shape at a glance is often the real trap, independent of shared letters.

6 ch
hermès
6 ch
hordes

Look-alike desk: hermès vs hordes

A purely visual mix-up. hermès (\ɛʁ.mɛs\) and hordes (^((h aspiré))\ɔʁd\) 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 3 positions. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 41858, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

hermès is recorded at frequency rank #17,971, classified as anoun, pronounced \ɛʁ.mɛs\. hordes is at rank #23,887, tagged as anoun, pronounced ^((h aspiré))\ɔʁd\.

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 41858, this pair ranks #229,982 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.

Orthographic DNA of hermès vs hordes

Shared letters: ehrs. Private to "hermès": . Private to "hordes": do.

"hermès" · 6 letters · shape CVCCVC  ·  "hordes" · 6 letters · shape CVCCVC

Known mistypes of this pair

  • hordeshhordes · hodres · horddes · hordess · hordse · horeds · horrdes · ohrdes

Frequently Asked Questions

Can "hermès" and "hordes" be used interchangeably?
No. They are said differently (\ɛʁ.mɛs\ versus ^((h aspiré))\ɔʁd\) and carry different meanings; reading the sentence aloud is usually enough to catch the wrong one.
Frequency check: "hermès" vs "hordes" - which ranks higher?
"hermès" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #17,971 in our French list, against #23,887 for "hordes". The two are close in frequency, so neither is a safe default; check the meaning rather than guessing.

What to do next

Visual near-miss handled. Browse the word pages or a neighbour when the next look-alike shows up.

  • Full dictionary entry for "hermès" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "hordes" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #229,982 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "hermès" and "hordes" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "hordes vs hornet". 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 #229,982 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