hatevshiatoWhich spelling fits?

Which to use

“hate” and “hiato” are a confusable Portuguese pair: similar on the page, but distinct in meaning, check the gloss before you choose.

#12,905
“hate” frequency rank
#29,000
“hiato” frequency rank
41905
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature hate hiato
Definition ódio sequência de duas vogais que pertencem a sílabas diferentes

Where the eye mixes hate and hiato

Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 3 letters in sequence.

4 ch
hate
5 ch
hiato

Look-alike desk: hate vs hiato

A purely visual mix-up. hate (/heɪt/) and hiato (/ˈja.tu/) 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 41905, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

hate is recorded at frequency rank #12,905, classified as anoun, pronounced /heɪt/. hiato is at rank #29,000, tagged as anoun, pronounced /ˈja.tu/.

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 41905, this pair ranks #23,945 of 75,631 scored Portuguese confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.

Orthographic DNA of hate vs hiato

Shared letters: aht. Private to "hate": e. Private to "hiato": io.

"hate" · 4 letters · shape CVCV  ·  "hiato" · 5 letters · shape CVVCV

Known mistypes of this pair

  • hateahte · haet · hatte · hhate · htae
  • hiatohaito · hhiato · hiaot · hiatto · hitao · ihato

Frequently Asked Questions

Is swapping "hate" for "hiato" ever safe?
No. They are said differently (/heɪt/ versus /ˈja.tu/) and carry different meanings; reading the sentence aloud is usually enough to catch the wrong one.
Frequency check: "hate" vs "hiato" - which ranks higher?
"hate" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #12,905 in our Portuguese list, against #29,000 for "hiato". The two are close in frequency, so neither is a safe default; check the meaning rather than guessing.

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 "hate" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "hiato" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #23,945 of 75,631 scored Portuguese confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "hate" and "hiato" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "haber vs hate". 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 #23,945 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