hotvshouxWhat's the difference?

Quick tell: hot is a adjective, houx is a noun, so they fill different roles in a sentence.

Which to use

“hot” is an adjective and “houx” is a noun - they look or sound alike but fill different roles in a sentence.

#6,200
“hot” frequency rank
#45,659
“houx” frequency rank
51859
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature hot houx
Definition Intéressant. Arbre toujours vert, de la famille des aquifoliacées, dont les feuilles sont luisantes et armées de piquants et dont le fruit est une baie d’un très beau rouge.

Where the spellings diverge

Shared letters are muted; the letters that actually set hot and houx apart are highlighted. They share 2 letters in sequence, which is exactly why the eye skips the difference.

3 ch
hot
4 ch
houx

Spelling & Dictionary Insight

These two trip readers on the page rather than in the ear: hot is \ɔt\ while houx is ^((h aspiré))\u\. Spoken aloud the problem disappears. In writing it persists, because they differ by 1 letter(s) in length, and the parts of speech differ too (adjective vs noun), which is usually the fastest check. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 51859, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

hot is recorded at frequency rank #6,200, classified as anadj, pronounced \ɔt\. houx is at rank #45,659, tagged as anoun, pronounced ^((h aspiré))\u\.

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 51859, this pair ranks #151,903 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.

Orthographic DNA of hot vs houx

Shared letters: ho. Private to "hot": t. Private to "houx": ux.

"hot" · 3 letters · shape CVC  ·  "houx" · 4 letters · shape CVVC

Known mistypes of this pair

  • houxhhoux · houxx · hoxu · huox · ohux

Frequency comparison

hot#6,200
houx#45,659

Source: FrequencyWords open word-frequency list

Frequently Asked Questions

Can "hot" and "houx" be used interchangeably?
No - they are not even the same part of speech. "hot" is an adjective and "houx" a noun, so a sentence built for one is usually ungrammatical with the other.
Which is more common, "hot" or "houx"?
"hot" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #6,200 in our French list, against #45,659 for "houx". The two are close in frequency, so neither is a safe default; check the meaning rather than guessing.

Remembering hot vs houx

The fastest way to pick the right one every time.

  • Check the role first: if you need an adjective, it's “hot”; for a noun, it's “houx”.
  • See each word in full, definition, IPA, etymology and its other confusables. Full “hot” entry
  • Browse more pairs most likely to be confused. Most confusable

Source: Wiktionary (via kaikki.org) Structured Wiktionary extract

Source: FrequencyWords open word-frequency list