Which to use
“hong” and “hôte” are a confusable French pair: similar on the page, but distinct in meaning, check the gloss before you choose.
- #5,462
- “hong” frequency rank
- #6,098
- “hôte” frequency rank
- 11560
- confusion score
Side-by-Side Comparison
| Feature | hong | hôte |
|---|---|---|
| Definition | Compagnie de marchands chinois à Canton, qui ont le privilège de commercer avec les Européens. | Celui qui donne l’hospitalité par humanité, par amitié, par bienveillance. |
Where the eye mixes hong and hôte
Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 1 letter in sequence. hong (CVCC) and hôte (CVCV) run the same length but a different consonant-vowel pattern - the shape difference is usually the fastest tell.
Why the eye confuses hong with hôte
A purely visual mix-up. hong (^((h aspiré))\ɔ̃ɡ\) and hôte (^((h muet))\ot\) 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 3 positions. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 11560, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.
hong is recorded at frequency rank #5,462, classified as anoun, pronounced ^((h aspiré))\ɔ̃ɡ\. 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 11560, this pair ranks #408,716 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - a relatively easy-to-tell-apart pair.
Orthographic DNA of hong vs hôte
Shared letters: h. Private to "hong": gno. Private to "hôte": etô.
"hong" · 4 letters · shape CVCC · "hôte" · 4 letters · shape CVCV
Known mistypes of this pair
- hong ← hhong · hnog · hogn · hongg · honng · ohng
Frequently Asked Questions
Is swapping "hong" for "hôte" ever safe?
Which is more common, "hong" or "hôte"?
Useful next steps
Pronunciation already separates them, if the page still looks alike, the dictionary links below settle it.
- Full dictionary entry for "hong" 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 #408,716 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
- "hong" and "hôte" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "Hatem vs hôte". 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 #408,716 of 440,172 scored French pairs, corpus vintage 2026-09-03, not spelling advice.