holàvshôteConfusable pair

Quick tell: holà is a intj, hôte is a noun, so they fill different roles in a sentence.

Which to use

“holà” is an intj and “hôte” is a noun - they look or sound alike but fill different roles in a sentence.

#38,841
“holà” frequency rank
#6,098
“hôte” frequency rank
44939
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature holà hôte
Definition Cri que les charretiers poussaient pour faire arrêter leurs chevaux. Celui qui donne l’hospitalité par humanité, par amitié, par bienveillance.

Where the eye mixes holà and hôte

Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 1 letter in sequence. holà and hôte follow the identical consonant-vowel pattern (CVCV). Same shape at a glance is often the real trap, independent of shared letters.

4 ch
holà
4 ch
hôte

Look-alike desk: holà vs hôte

These two trip readers on the page rather than in the ear: holà is ^((h aspiré))\ɔ.la\ while hôte is ^((h muet))\ot\. Spoken aloud the problem disappears. In writing it persists, because they share most of their letters but differ in 3 positions, and the parts of speech differ too (intj vs noun), which is usually the fastest check. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 44939, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

holà is recorded at frequency rank #38,841, classified as anintj, pronounced ^((h aspiré))\ɔ.la\. hôte is at rank #6,098, tagged as anoun, pronounced ^((h muet))\ot\.

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 44939, this pair ranks #206,662 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.

Orthographic DNA of holà vs hôte

Shared letters: h. Private to "holà": loà. Private to "hôte": etô.

"holà" · 4 letters · shape CVCV  ·  "hôte" · 4 letters · shape CVCV

Frequently Asked Questions

Do "holà" and "hôte" mean the same thing in a sentence?
No - they are not even the same part of speech. "holà" is an intj and "hôte" a noun, so a sentence built for one is usually ungrammatical with the other.
Frequency check: "holà" vs "hôte" - which ranks higher?
"hôte" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #6,098 in our French list, against #38,841 for "holà". The two are close in frequency, so neither is a safe default; check the meaning rather than guessing.

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 "holà" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "hôte" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #206,662 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "holà" and "hôte" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "holà vs Houda". Nearby pair

Confusion rank #206,662 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