hookvshorsWhich spelling fits?

Quick tell: hook is a noun, hors is a preposition, so they fill different roles in a sentence.

Which to use

“hook” is a noun and “hors” is a preposition - they look or sound alike but fill different roles in a sentence.

#31,062
“hook” frequency rank
#688
“hors” frequency rank
31750
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature hook hors
Definition Effet inverse du slice. Préposition servant à marquer l’exclusion du lieu.

Where the eye mixes hook and hors

Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 2 letters in sequence.

4 ch
hook
4 ch
hors

Look-alike desk: hook vs hors

These two trip readers on the page rather than in the ear: hook is \uk\ while hors is ^((h aspiré))\ɔʁ\. Spoken aloud the problem disappears. In writing it persists, because they share most of their letters but differ in 2 positions, and the parts of speech differ too (noun vs preposition), which is usually the fastest check. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 31750, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

hook is recorded at frequency rank #31,062, classified as anoun, pronounced \uk\. hors is at rank #688, tagged as aprep, pronounced ^((h aspiré))\ɔʁ\.

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 31750, this pair ranks #301,799 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.

Orthographic DNA of hook vs hors

Shared letters: ho. Private to "hook": k. Private to "hors": rs.

"hook" · 4 letters · shape CVVC  ·  "hors" · 4 letters · shape CVCC

Known mistypes of this pair

  • hookhhook · hok · hoko · hookk · ohok
  • horshhors · horrs · horss · hosr · hros · ohrs

Frequently Asked Questions

Do "hook" and "hors" mean the same thing in a sentence?
No - they are not even the same part of speech. "hook" is a noun and "hors" a preposition, so a sentence built for one is usually ungrammatical with the other.
Frequency check: "hook" vs "hors" - which ranks higher?
"hors" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #688 in our French list, against #31,062 for "hook". That is a wide gap, so in ordinary text the rarer spelling is the one worth double-checking.

Useful next steps

Visual near-miss handled. Browse the word pages or a neighbour when the next look-alike shows up.

  • Full dictionary entry for "hook" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "hors" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #301,799 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "hook" and "hors" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "hoax vs hook". 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 #301,799 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