hilairevshoraireWhat's the difference?

Which to use

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

#15,401
“hilaire” frequency rank
#5,873
“horaire” frequency rank
21274
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature hilaire horaire
Definition Qui a rapport au hile. Relatif aux heures.

Where the eye mixes hilaire and horaire

Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 5 letters in sequence. hilaire and horaire follow the identical consonant-vowel pattern (CVCVVCV). Same shape at a glance is often the real trap, independent of shared letters.

7 ch
hilaire
7 ch
horaire

Visual trap between hilaire and horaire

A purely visual mix-up. hilaire (^((h aspiré))\i.lɛʁ\) and horaire (^((h muet))\ɔ.ʁɛʁ\) 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 2 positions. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 21274, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

hilaire is recorded at frequency rank #15,401, classified as anadj, pronounced ^((h aspiré))\i.lɛʁ\. horaire is at rank #5,873, tagged as anadj, pronounced ^((h muet))\ɔ.ʁɛʁ\.

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 21274, this pair ranks #364,023 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - a relatively easy-to-tell-apart pair.

Orthographic DNA of hilaire vs horaire

Shared letters: aehir. Private to "hilaire": l. Private to "horaire": o.

"hilaire" · 7 letters · shape CVCVVCV  ·  "horaire" · 7 letters · shape CVCVVCV

Known mistypes of this pair

  • hilaire ← hhilaire · hialire · hilaier · hilairre · hilarie · hiliare · hillaire · hliaire
  • horaire ← hhoraire · hoarire · horaier · horairre · horarie · horiare · horraire · hroaire

Frequently Asked Questions

Do "hilaire" and "horaire" mean the same thing in a sentence?
No. They are said differently (^((h aspiré))\i.lɛʁ\ versus ^((h muet))\ɔ.ʁɛʁ\) and carry different meanings; reading the sentence aloud is usually enough to catch the wrong one.
Which is more common, "hilaire" or "horaire"?
"horaire" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #5,873 in our French list, against #15,401 for "hilaire". The two are close in frequency, so neither is a safe default; check the meaning rather than guessing.

Useful next steps

Eye-level mix-up between "hilaire" and "horaire" is sorted above. Next: full entries or other pairs that share a letter shape.

  • Full dictionary entry for "hilaire" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "horaire" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #364,023 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "hilaire" and "horaire" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "hilaire vs hilarité". 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 #364,023 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