Which to use
“hou” is an intj and “houx” is a noun - they look or sound alike but fill different roles in a sentence.
- #26,040
- “hou” frequency rank
- #45,659
- “houx” frequency rank
- 71699
- confusion score
Side-by-Side Comparison
| Feature | hou | houx |
|---|---|---|
| Definition | Suppose le cri d’un fantôme. | 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. |
Same sound, different letters: hou vs houx
Muted letters are shared; highlighted letters are the only spelling cue when pronunciation matches. Shared run: 3 letters. hou runs 3 letters (CVV) against houx's 4 (CVVC) - the length gap alone is often enough to separate them once you know to check it.
Same sound, different spelling - hou / houx
Say them out loud and nothing separates them: hou and houx carry the same recorded pronunciation, ^((h aspiré))\u\. Grammar is what tells them apart: one is anintj, the other anoun, so most sentences will only accept one of them. They differ by 1 extra letter(s) - “hou” sits inside “houx”. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 71699, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.
hou is recorded at frequency rank #26,040, classified as anintj, pronounced ^((h aspiré))\u\. 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 71699, this pair ranks #46,623 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - among the most confusable pairs.
Orthographic DNA of hou vs houx
Shared letters: hou. Private to "hou": -. Private to "houx": x.
"hou" · 3 letters · shape CVV · "houx" · 4 letters · shape CVVC
Known mistypes of this pair
- houx ← hhoux · houxx · hoxu · huox · ohux
Frequently Asked Questions
Is swapping "hou" for "houx" ever safe?
Which is more common, "hou" or "houx"?
What to do next
You've separated the homophone pair "hou" / "houx". Follow the links when you need the full entry or a neighbour that trips the same ear.
- Full dictionary entry for "hou" 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 #46,623 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
- "hou" 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 #46,623 of 440,172 scored French pairs, corpus vintage 2026-09-03, not spelling advice.