hospicevshospicesConfusable pair

Which to use

“hospice” and “hospices” are a confusable French pair: similar on the page, but distinct in meaning, check the gloss before you choose.

#19,858
“hospice” frequency rank
#34,120
“hospices” frequency rank
53978
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature hospice hospices
Definition Établissement public ou privé où l’on reçoit et entretient, soit gratuitement, soit pour une rétribution peu élevée, des enfants, des infirmes ou des vieillards hors d’état de subvenir à leurs propres besoins. Pluriel de hospice.

Same sound, different letters: hospice vs hospices

Muted letters are shared; highlighted letters are the only spelling cue when pronunciation matches. Shared run: 7 letters. hospice runs 7 letters (CVCCVCV) against hospices's 8 (CVCCVCVC) - the length gap alone is often enough to separate them once you know to check it.

7 ch
hospice
8 ch
hospices

Same sound, different spelling - hospice / hospices

This is the hard kind. hospice and hospices are pronounced identically (^((h muet))\ɔs.pis\) and both work as anoun. Neither the ear nor the grammar will rescue you; only the meaning does, so the glosses below are the whole decision. They differ by 1 extra letter(s) - “hospice” sits inside “hospices”. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 53978, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

hospice is recorded at frequency rank #19,858, classified as anoun, pronounced ^((h muet))\ɔs.pis\. hospices is at rank #34,120, tagged as anoun, pronounced ^((h muet))\ɔs.pis\.

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 53978, this pair ranks #137,140 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.

Orthographic DNA of hospice vs hospices

Shared letters: cehiops. Private to "hospice": -. Private to "hospices": -.

"hospice" · 7 letters · shape CVCCVCV  ·  "hospices" · 8 letters · shape CVCCVCVC

Known mistypes of this pair

  • hospice ← hhospice · hopsice · hosipce · hospcie · hospicce · hospiec · hosppice · hosspice
  • hospices ← hhospices · hopsices · hosipces · hospcies · hospicces · hospicess · hospicse · hospiecs

Frequently Asked Questions

Is swapping "hospice" for "hospices" ever safe?
No. They are pronounced the same (^((h muet))\ɔs.pis\), which is exactly why they get swapped in writing, but the dictionary meanings above are different, and pronunciation is no guide here.
Which is more common, "hospice" or "hospices"?
"hospice" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #19,858 in our French list, against #34,120 for "hospices". The two are close in frequency, so neither is a safe default; check the meaning rather than guessing.

What to do next

Sound matches; spelling doesn't. Use the exits below to lock the right form or check a cousin pair.

  • Full dictionary entry for "hospice" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "hospices" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #137,140 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "hospice" and "hospices" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "hospice vs hostie". 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 #137,140 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