Which to use
“horse” and “hours” are a confusable French pair: similar on the page, but distinct in meaning, check the gloss before you choose.
- #25,002
- “horse” frequency rank
- #31,541
- “hours” frequency rank
- 56543
- confusion score
Side-by-Side Comparison
| Feature | horse | hours |
|---|---|---|
| Definition | Cheval (animal). | Chevalets qui soutiennent l’arbre sur lequel travaillent des scieurs de long. |
Where the eye mixes horse and hours
Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 4 letters in sequence. horse (CVCCV) and hours (CVVCC) run the same length but a different consonant-vowel pattern - the shape difference is usually the fastest tell.
Why the eye confuses horse with hours
A purely visual mix-up. horse (\ˈhɔɹs\) and hours (^((h aspiré))\uʁ\) 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 56543, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.
horse is recorded at frequency rank #25,002, classified as anoun, pronounced \ˈhɔɹs\. hours is at rank #31,541, tagged as anoun, pronounced ^((h aspiré))\uʁ\.
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 56543, this pair ranks #120,459 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.
Orthographic DNA of horse vs hours
Shared letters: hors. Private to "horse": e. Private to "hours": u.
"horse" · 5 letters · shape CVCCV · "hours" · 5 letters · shape CVVCC
Known mistypes of this pair
Frequently Asked Questions
Do "horse" and "hours" mean the same thing in a sentence?
Which is more common, "horse" or "hours"?
What to do next
Pronunciation already separates them, if the page still looks alike, the dictionary links below settle it.
- Full dictionary entry for "horse" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
- Full dictionary entry for "hours" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
- This pair ranks #120,459 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
- "horse" and "hours" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "heurt vs hours". 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 #120,459 of 440,172 scored French pairs, corpus vintage 2026-09-03, not spelling advice.