Which to use
“hic” and “hide” are a confusable French pair: similar on the page, but distinct in meaning, check the gloss before you choose.
- #16,382
- “hic” frequency rank
- #47,373
- “hide” frequency rank
- 63755
- confusion score
Side-by-Side Comparison
| Feature | hic | hide |
|---|---|---|
| Definition | Nœud ou principale difficulté d’une affaire, problème. | Cuir, peau (des animaux vivants). |
Where the eye mixes hic and hide
Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 2 letters in sequence.
Visual trap between hic and hide
A purely visual mix-up. hic (^((h aspiré))\ik\) and hide (\haɪd\) 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 63755, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.
hic is recorded at frequency rank #16,382, classified as anoun, pronounced ^((h aspiré))\ik\. hide is at rank #47,373, tagged as anoun, pronounced \haɪd\.
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 63755, this pair ranks #80,380 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - among the most confusable pairs.
Orthographic DNA of hic vs hide
Shared letters: hi. Private to "hic": c. Private to "hide": de.
"hic" · 3 letters · shape CVC · "hide" · 4 letters · shape CVCV
Known mistypes of this pair
- hide ← hdie · hhide · hidde · hied · ihde
Frequently Asked Questions
Is swapping "hic" for "hide" ever safe?
Frequency check: "hic" vs "hide" - which ranks higher?
After this comparison
Eye-level mix-up between "hic" and "hide" is sorted above. Next: full entries or other pairs that share a letter shape.
- Full dictionary entry for "hic" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
- Full dictionary entry for "hide" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
- This pair ranks #80,380 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
- "hic" and "hide" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "hedge vs hide". 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 #80,380 of 440,172 scored French pairs, corpus vintage 2026-09-03, not spelling advice.