hitvshotWhat's the difference?

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

Which to use

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

#5,308
“hit” frequency rank
#6,301
“hot” frequency rank
11609
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature hit hot
Definition atingir quente

Letter map: hit vs hot

Shared letters muted; letters that set hit and hot apart highlighted. Shared run: 2.

3 ch
hit
3 ch
hot

Role in the sentence - hit and hot

Our dataset has no pronunciation recorded for both members, so the reliable separator here is grammatical: hit is averb and hotanadjective. On the page they differ by a single letter - i in “hit” becomes o in “hot”. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 11609, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

hit is recorded at frequency rank #5,308, classified as averb. hot is at rank #6,301, tagged as anadj, pronounced /hɒt/.

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 11609, this pair ranks #61,204 of 75,631 scored Portuguese confusable pairs - a relatively easy-to-tell-apart pair.

Orthographic DNA of hit vs hot

Shared letters: ht. Private to "hit": i. Private to "hot": o.

"hit" · 3 letters · shape CVC  ·  "hot" · 3 letters · shape CVC

Frequently Asked Questions

Can "hit" and "hot" be used interchangeably?
No - they are not even the same part of speech. "hit" is a verb and "hot" an adjective, so a sentence built for one is usually ungrammatical with the other.
In ordinary Portuguese text, does "hit" or "hot" show up more?
"hit" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #5,308 in our Portuguese list, against #6,301 for "hot". The two are close in frequency, so neither is a safe default; check the meaning rather than guessing.

What to do next

Done with this confusable. These links stay specific to "hit" and "hot".

  • Full dictionary entry for "hit" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "hot" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #61,204 of 75,631 scored Portuguese confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "hit" and "hot" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "hot vs hui". Nearby pair

Confusion rank #61,204 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