Which to use
“hoche” and “houle” are a confusable French pair: similar on the page, but distinct in meaning, check the gloss before you choose.
- #25,349
- “hoche” frequency rank
- #24,236
- “houle” frequency rank
- 49585
- confusion score
Side-by-Side Comparison
| Feature | hoche | houle |
|---|---|---|
| Definition | Coche, entaillure, spécialement en parlant de la marque qu’on fait sur une taille pour tenir le compte du pain, du vin, de la viande, etc., qu’on prend à crédit. | Mouvement d’ondulation que la mer conserve après une tempête, mais qui l’agite sans bruit et sans former d’écume. |
Where the eye mixes hoche and houle
Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 3 letters in sequence. hoche (CVCCV) and houle (CVVCV) run the same length but a different consonant-vowel pattern - the shape difference is usually the fastest tell.
Look-alike desk: hoche vs houle
A purely visual mix-up. hoche (^((h aspiré))\ɔʃ\) and houle (^((h aspiré))\ul\) 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 49585, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.
hoche is recorded at frequency rank #25,349, classified as anoun, pronounced ^((h aspiré))\ɔʃ\. houle is at rank #24,236, tagged as anoun, pronounced ^((h aspiré))\ul\.
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 49585, this pair ranks #169,439 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.
Orthographic DNA of hoche vs houle
Shared letters: eho. Private to "hoche": c. Private to "houle": lu.
"hoche" · 5 letters · shape CVCCV · "houle" · 5 letters · shape CVVCV
Known mistypes of this pair
Frequently Asked Questions
Is swapping "hoche" for "houle" ever safe?
Frequency check: "hoche" vs "houle" - which ranks higher?
After this comparison
Visual near-miss handled. Browse the word pages or a neighbour when the next look-alike shows up.
- Full dictionary entry for "hoche" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
- Full dictionary entry for "houle" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
- This pair ranks #169,439 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
- "hoche" and "houle" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "Houda vs houle". 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 #169,439 of 440,172 scored French pairs, corpus vintage 2026-09-03, not spelling advice.