Which to use
“hoax” and “houx” are a confusable French pair: similar on the page, but distinct in meaning, check the gloss before you choose.
- #47,378
- “hoax” frequency rank
- #45,659
- “houx” frequency rank
- 93037
- confusion score
Side-by-Side Comparison
| Feature | hoax | houx |
|---|---|---|
| Definition | Canular, bobard, intox, en particulier diffusé sur Internet. | Arbre toujours vert, de la famille des aquifoliacées, dont les feuilles sont luisantes et armées de piquants et dont le fruit est une baie d’un très beau rouge. |
Where the eye mixes hoax and houx
Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 3 letters in sequence. hoax and houx follow the identical consonant-vowel pattern (CVVC). Same shape at a glance is often the real trap, independent of shared letters.
Why the eye confuses hoax with houx
A purely visual mix-up. hoax (^((h aspiré))\oks\) and houx (^((h aspiré))\u\) 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 a single letter - a in “hoax” becomes u in “houx”. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 93037, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.
hoax is recorded at frequency rank #47,378, classified as anoun, pronounced ^((h aspiré))\oks\. houx is at rank #45,659, tagged as anoun, pronounced ^((h aspiré))\u\.
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 93037, this pair ranks #2,568 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - among the most confusable pairs.
Orthographic DNA of hoax vs houx
Shared letters: hox. Private to "hoax": a. Private to "houx": u.
"hoax" · 4 letters · shape CVVC · "houx" · 4 letters · shape CVVC
Known mistypes of this pair
Frequently Asked Questions
Do "hoax" and "houx" mean the same thing in a sentence?
Which is more common, "hoax" or "houx"?
After this comparison
Pronunciation already separates them, if the page still looks alike, the dictionary links below settle it.
- Full dictionary entry for "hoax" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
- Full dictionary entry for "houx" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
- This pair ranks #2,568 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
- "hoax" and "houx" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "hae vs hoax". 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 #2,568 of 440,172 scored French pairs, corpus vintage 2026-09-03, not spelling advice.