Which to use
“hôte” and “houx” are a confusable French pair: similar on the page, but distinct in meaning, check the gloss before you choose.
- #6,098
- “hôte” frequency rank
- #45,659
- “houx” frequency rank
- 51757
- confusion score
Side-by-Side Comparison
| Feature | hôte | houx |
|---|---|---|
| Definition | Celui qui donne l’hospitalité par humanité, par amitié, par bienveillance. | 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 eye mixes hôte and houx
Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 1 letter in sequence. hôte (CVCV) and houx (CVVC) run the same length but a different consonant-vowel pattern - the shape difference is usually the fastest tell.
Why the eye confuses hôte with houx
A purely visual mix-up. hôte (^((h muet))\ot\) and houx (^((h aspiré))\u\) 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 51757, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.
hôte is recorded at frequency rank #6,098, classified as anoun, pronounced ^((h muet))\ot\. 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 51757, this pair ranks #152,692 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.
Orthographic DNA of hôte vs houx
Shared letters: h. Private to "hôte": etô. Private to "houx": oux.
"hôte" · 4 letters · shape CVCV · "houx" · 4 letters · shape CVVC
Known mistypes of this pair
- houx ← hhoux · houxx · hoxu · huox · ohux
Frequently Asked Questions
Can "hôte" and "houx" be used interchangeably?
In ordinary French text, does "hôte" or "houx" show up more?
After this comparison
Visual near-miss handled. Browse the word pages or a neighbour when the next look-alike shows up.
- Full dictionary entry for "hôte" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
- Full dictionary entry for "houx" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
- This pair ranks #152,692 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
- "hôte" and "houx" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "Houda vs houx". 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 #152,692 of 440,172 scored French pairs, corpus vintage 2026-09-03, not spelling advice.