Which to use
“hospice” and “hostie” are a confusable French pair: similar on the page, but distinct in meaning, check the gloss before you choose.
- #19,858
- “hospice” frequency rank
- #28,989
- “hostie” frequency rank
- 48847
- confusion score
Side-by-Side Comparison
| Feature | hospice | hostie |
|---|---|---|
| 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. | Pain très mince et sans levain (azyme) que le prêtre offre et consacre à la messe. |
Where the eye mixes hospice and hostie
Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 5 letters in sequence. hospice runs 7 letters (CVCCVCV) against hostie's 6 (CVCCVV) - the length gap alone is often enough to separate them once you know to check it.
Why the eye confuses hospice with hostie
A purely visual mix-up. hospice (^((h muet))\ɔs.pis\) and hostie (^((h muet))\ɔs.ti\) are said differently, so reading them aloud is the quickest way to catch the wrong one. On the page they stay close: they differ by 1 letter(s) in length. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 48847, 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\. hostie is at rank #28,989, tagged as anoun, pronounced ^((h muet))\ɔs.ti\.
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 48847, this pair ranks #175,575 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.
Orthographic DNA of hospice vs hostie
Shared letters: ehios. Private to "hospice": cp. Private to "hostie": t.
"hospice" · 7 letters · shape CVCCVCV · "hostie" · 6 letters · shape CVCCVV
Known mistypes of this pair
Frequently Asked Questions
Can "hospice" and "hostie" be used interchangeably?
Frequency check: "hospice" vs "hostie" - which ranks higher?
Useful next steps
Eye-level mix-up between "hospice" and "hostie" is sorted above. Next: full entries or other pairs that share a letter shape.
- Full dictionary entry for "hospice" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
- Full dictionary entry for "hostie" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
- This pair ranks #175,575 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
- "hospice" and "hostie" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "hostel 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 #175,575 of 440,172 scored French pairs, corpus vintage 2026-09-03, not spelling advice.