Which to use
“houx” and “hug” are a confusable French pair: similar on the page, but distinct in meaning, check the gloss before you choose.
- #45,659
- “houx” frequency rank
- #39,337
- “hug” frequency rank
- 84996
- confusion score
Side-by-Side Comparison
| Feature | houx | hug |
|---|---|---|
| Definition | 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. | Accolade. |
Where the eye mixes houx and hug
Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 2 letters in sequence. houx runs 4 letters (CVVC) against hug's 3 (CVC) - the length gap alone is often enough to separate them once you know to check it.
Look-alike desk: houx vs hug
A purely visual mix-up. houx (^((h aspiré))\u\) and hug (^((h aspiré))\œɡ\) 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 84996, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.
houx is recorded at frequency rank #45,659, classified as anoun, pronounced ^((h aspiré))\u\. hug is at rank #39,337, tagged as anoun, pronounced ^((h aspiré))\œɡ\.
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 84996, this pair ranks #12,053 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - among the most confusable pairs.
Orthographic DNA of houx vs hug
Shared letters: hu. Private to "houx": ox. Private to "hug": g.
"houx" · 4 letters · shape CVVC · "hug" · 3 letters · shape CVC
Known mistypes of this pair
- houx ← hhoux · houxx · hoxu · huox · ohux
Frequently Asked Questions
Do "houx" and "hug" mean the same thing in a sentence?
Which is more common, "houx" or "hug"?
What to do next
Pronunciation already separates them, if the page still looks alike, the dictionary links below settle it.
- Full dictionary entry for "houx" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
- Full dictionary entry for "hug" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
- This pair ranks #12,053 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
- "houx" and "hug" 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 #12,053 of 440,172 scored French pairs, corpus vintage 2026-09-03, not spelling advice.