hackvshalfWhat's the difference?

Quick tell: hack is a verb, half is an adjective, so they fill different roles in a sentence.

Which to use

“hack” is a verb and “half” is an adjective - they look or sound alike but fill different roles in a sentence.

#22,668
“hack” frequency rank
#13,952
“half” frequency rank
36620
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature hack half
Definition (transitivo direto, intransitivo) retalhar^(5, 6), cortar, ferir meio

Letter map: hack vs half

Shared letters muted; letters that set hack and half apart highlighted. Shared run: 2.

4 ch
hack
4 ch
half

Role in the sentence - hack and half

Our dataset has no pronunciation recorded for both members, so the reliable separator here is grammatical: hack is averb and halfanadjective. On the page they share most of their letters but differ in 2 positions. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 36620, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

hack is recorded at frequency rank #22,668, classified as averb. half is at rank #13,952, tagged as anadj, pronounced /ɦɑlf/.

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 36620, this pair ranks #30,129 of 75,631 scored Portuguese confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.

Orthographic DNA of hack vs half

Shared letters: ah. Private to "hack": ck. Private to "half": fl.

"hack" · 4 letters · shape CVCC  ·  "half" · 4 letters · shape CVCC

Known mistypes of this pair

  • hackahck · hacck · hackk · hakc · hcak · hhack
  • halfahlf · hafl · halff · hallf · hhalf · hlaf

Frequently Asked Questions

Is swapping "hack" for "half" ever safe?
No - they are not even the same part of speech. "hack" is a verb and "half" an adjective, so a sentence built for one is usually ungrammatical with the other.
Frequency check: "hack" vs "half" - which ranks higher?
"half" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #13,952 in our Portuguese list, against #22,668 for "hack". The two are close in frequency, so neither is a safe default; check the meaning rather than guessing.

Useful next steps

You've compared "hack" and "half". Here's where to go from here.

  • Full dictionary entry for "hack" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "half" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #30,129 of 75,631 scored Portuguese confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "hack" and "half" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "hack vs hani". 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 #30,129 of 75,631 scored Portuguese pairs, corpus vintage 2026-09-03, not spelling advice.

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

Source: FrequencyWords open word-frequency list