Commonly confused words

hoard vs horde

A hoard is a hidden store — a hoard of coins, a hoard of tinned food. A horde is a large crowd, usually of peo...

hole vs whole

A hole is an opening or hollow space — "there's a hole in my sock". Whole means entire, complete, undamaged —...

hollow vs shallow

Hollow means having an empty space inside it; shallow means having very little depth from the surface down. Th...

holy vs wholly

Holy means sacred or devoted to God — "they buried him in holy ground". Wholly means entirely or completely —...

home vs hone

To home in on something is to move towards it precisely, like a homing pigeon or a guided missile. To hone is...

honor vs honour

These are two spellings of the same word, with no difference in meaning: "it was an honour to be asked" and "i...

hope vs wish

Hope is for outcomes that are genuinely possible: "I hope the train's on time." Wish is for things that are un...

hoping vs hopping

Hoping is from hope — wishing something will happen: "I am hoping for good news." Hopping is from hop — jumpin...

horizontal vs vertical

<strong>Horizontal</strong> runs side to side, flat and parallel to the ground: <em>the shelf has to be perfec...

horoscope vs zodiac

The zodiac is the band of twelve signs along the apparent path of the sun through the sky. A horoscope is a ch...

hour vs our

Hour is a unit of time, sixty minutes: "The flight takes three hours." Our is the possessive form of we, meani...

humus vs hummus

Humus, with one m, is the dark decayed organic matter in soil. Hummus, with two, is the Levantine dip made fro...

hungary vs hungry

Hungary is the Central European country whose capital is Budapest, and it always takes a capital H — "she was...

hypothesis vs theory

A hypothesis is a specific prediction you set out to test; a scientific theory is a broad explanation that has...

identical vs fraternal

Identical twins develop from a single fertilised egg that splits, so they share essentially the same genetic m...

identification vs identity

Identity is <em>who or what something is</em> — the set of characteristics that make it itself: <em>The victim...

idle vs idol

Idle means inactive, unoccupied or lazy — an idle engine, idle hands. An idol is an image worshipped as a god,...

ignorance vs stupidity

Ignorance is a lack of knowledge about something specific — it says nothing about intelligence and is fixed by...

ignorant vs ignore

<strong>Ignorant</strong> is an adjective meaning you do not know something: <em>I was completely ignorant of...

illicit vs illegal

Illegal means forbidden by law. Illicit is wider — it covers anything forbidden by law, rule or custom, and of...

imply vs infer

The SPEAKER or writer implies — suggests something without saying it directly ("Her tone implied she was annoy...

incite vs insight

To incite is to provoke or stir up — incite violence, incite a crowd. Insight is a deep or penetrating underst...

income vs revenue

For a business, revenue is the total money taken from sales, while income normally means what is left after co...

incredible vs incredulous

Incredible describes the thing — hard to believe, or loosely, amazing. Incredulous describes the person — unwi...