Hose vs. Pipe — What's the Difference?
Edited by Tayyaba Rehman — By Fiza Rafique — Updated on September 30, 2023
A "hose" is a flexible tube conveying liquids or gases, while a "pipe" is a rigid tube used for transporting or distributing fluids.
Difference Between Hose and Pipe
Table of Contents
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Key Differences
While both "hose" and "pipe" serve the primary function of transferring substances, their flexibility varies significantly. Hoses, being pliable, can be coiled or bent to fit storage spaces or navigate obstacles. Pipes, in contrast, are solid and firm, often requiring joints or elbows to change direction.
Fiza Rafique
Sep 30, 2023
Furthermore, fittings and connectors for "hoses" and "pipes" differ. Hoses might use quick-release connectors or simple clamps, while pipes often need threaded joints, welds, or specialized fittings.
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Sep 30, 2023
A "hose" typically refers to a flexible tube, designed to carry fluids like water or air. Garden hoses are common examples, easily bent and moved to water plants. "Pipe", on the other hand, usually denotes a rigid cylindrical conduit, meant for transporting or distributing fluids over longer distances. Think of water pipes in homes.
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Sep 30, 2023
In terms of material, a "hose" is commonly made from rubber or flexible plastics, enabling its adaptability. "Pipe" can be made of various materials, including metal, PVC, or clay, depending on the application and the type of fluid it needs to carry.
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Sep 30, 2023
"Hose" also tends to be associated with temporary or movable applications, such as attaching to a faucet to water a garden or connecting to an air compressor. "Pipe", conversely, suggests a more permanent or fixed setup, as seen in plumbing systems or oil pipelines.
Fiza Rafique
Sep 30, 2023
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Comparison Chart
Material
Often made of rubber or flexible plastics.
Can be metal, PVC, clay, etc.
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Sep 30, 2023
Connection
Quick-release connectors or clamps.
Threaded joints, welds, or specialized fittings.
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Sep 30, 2023
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Definitions
Hose
To wash, spray, or drench with a stream of water.
I hosed down the driveway.
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Sep 30, 2023
Pipe
A rigid tube for transporting or distributing fluids.
The kitchen sink's pipe was leaking.
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Sep 30, 2023
Hose
A protective covering for wires or cables.
The wires have a rubber hose to prevent damage.
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Sep 30, 2023
Pipe
To speak in a high-pitched or piercing tone.
She piped up with an answer.
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Sep 30, 2023
Hose
Tubular piece in machinery or equipment.
The air conditioner's drain hose was blocked.
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Sep 30, 2023
Hose
A hose is a flexible hollow tube designed to carry fluids from one location to another. Hoses are also sometimes called pipes (the word pipe usually refers to a rigid tube, whereas a hose is usually a flexible one), or more generally tubing.
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Nov 15, 2019
Pipe
A device for smoking tobacco, consisting of a narrow tube made from wood, clay, etc. with a bowl at one end in which the tobacco is burned, the smoke from which is drawn into the mouth
A smell of pipe tobacco
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Nov 15, 2019
Hose
A flexible tube conveying water, used chiefly for watering plants and in firefighting
A sprinkler hose
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Nov 15, 2019
Pipe
A wind instrument consisting of a single tube with holes along its length that are covered by the fingers to produce different notes
The tone of a reed pipe
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Nov 15, 2019
Hose
Stockings, socks, and tights (especially in commercial use)
Her hose had been laddered
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Nov 15, 2019
Pipe
A command which causes the output from one routine to be the input for another.
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Nov 15, 2019
Pipe
A cask for wine, especially as a measure equal to two hogsheads, usually equivalent to 105 gallons (about 477 litres)
A fresh pipe of port
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Nov 15, 2019
Pipe
Convey (water, gas, oil, or other fluid substances) through a pipe or pipes
Water from the lakes is piped to Manchester
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Nov 15, 2019
Hose
Close-fitting breeches or leggings reaching up to the hips and fastened to a doublet, formerly worn by men. Used only in the plural.
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Nov 15, 2019
Pipe
Play (a tune) on a pipe or pipes
He believed he'd heard music—a tune being piped
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Nov 15, 2019
Pipe
(of a bird) sing in a high or shrill voice
Outside at the back a curlew piped
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Nov 15, 2019
Hose
Pl. hos·es A flexible tube for conveying liquids or gases under pressure.
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Nov 15, 2019
Pipe
Decorate (clothing or soft furnishings) with thin cord covered in fabric and inserted into a seam.
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Nov 15, 2019
Hose
To water, drench, or wash with a hose
Hosed down the deck.
Hosed off the dog.
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Nov 15, 2019
Pipe
Arrange (food, particularly icing or cream) in decorative lines or patterns
She had been piping cream round a flan
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Pipe
Propagate (a pink or similar plant) by taking a cutting at the joint of a stem.
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Pipe
A hollow cylinder or tube used to conduct a liquid, gas, or finely divided solid.
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Nov 15, 2019
Hose
(uncountable) A stocking-like garment worn on the legs; pantyhose, women's tights.
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Nov 15, 2019
Pipe
A device for smoking, consisting of a tube of wood, clay, or other material with a small bowl at one end.
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Nov 15, 2019
Pipe
An amount of smoking material, such as tobacco, needed to fill the bowl of a pipe; a pipeful.
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Nov 15, 2019
Pipe
A large wine cask, especially one having a capacity of 126 gallons or 2 hogsheads (478 liters).
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Nov 15, 2019
Hose
To break a computer so everything needs to be reinstalled; to wipe all files.
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Nov 15, 2019
Hose
To cause an unfair disadvantage to a player or team through poor officiating; especially, to cause a player or team to lose the game with an incorrect call.
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Nov 15, 2019
Pipe
Pipes A small wind instrument, consisting of tubes of different lengths bound together.
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Nov 15, 2019
Hose
Close-fitting trousers or breeches, as formerly worn, reaching to the knee.
These men were bound in their coats, their hosen, and their hats, and their other garments.
His youthful hose, well saved, a world too wideFor his shrunk shank.
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Nov 15, 2019
Hose
Covering for the feet and lower part of the legs; a stocking or stockings.
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Pipe
Pipes(Informal) The vocal cords; the voice, especially as used in singing.
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Nov 15, 2019
Hose
A flexible pipe, made of leather, India rubber, or other material, and used for conveying fluids, especially water, from a faucet, hydrant, or fire engine.
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Nov 15, 2019
Hose
Socks and stockings and tights collectively (the British include underwear as hosiery)
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Nov 15, 2019
Pipe
One of the vertical veins of eruptive origin in which diamonds are found in South Africa.
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Nov 15, 2019
Hose
A flexible tube for conveying liquids or gases.
I used a garden hose to water the plants.
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Sep 30, 2023
Pipe
(Metallurgy) A cone-shaped cavity in a steel ingot, formed during cooling by escaping gases.
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Nov 15, 2019
Hose
Men's close-fitting garment covering the legs.
Medieval knights wore hoses.
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Sep 30, 2023
Pipe
To convey as if by pipes, especially to transmit by wire or cable
Piped music into the store.
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Nov 15, 2019
Pipe
To receive aboard or mark the departure of by sounding a boatswain's pipe.
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Nov 15, 2019
Pipe
(musical instrument) A wind instrument consisting of a tube, often lined with holes to allow for adjustment in pitch, sounded by blowing into the tube.
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Nov 15, 2019
Pipe
A rigid tube that transports water, steam, or other fluid, as used in plumbing and numerous other applications.
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Nov 15, 2019
Pipe
A tubular passageway in the human body such as a blood vessel or the windpipe.
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Nov 15, 2019
Pipe
A large container for storing liquids or foodstuffs; now especially a vat or cask of cider or wine. (See a diagram comparing cask sizes.)
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Nov 15, 2019
Pipe
The contents of such a vessel, as a liquid measure, sometimes set at 126 wine gallons; half a tun.
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Nov 15, 2019
Pipe
Decorative edging stitched to the hems or seams of an object made of fabric (clothing, hats, curtains, pillows, etc.), often in a contrasting color; piping.
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Nov 15, 2019
Pipe
(geology) A vertical conduit through the Earth's crust below a volcano through which magma has passed, often filled with volcanic breccia.
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Nov 15, 2019
Pipe
An anonymous satire or essay, insulting and frequently libellous, written on a piece of paper which was rolled up and left somewhere public where it could be found and thus spread, to embarrass the author's enemies.
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Nov 15, 2019
Pipe
(computing) A mechanism that enables one program to communicate with another by sending its output to the other as input.
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Nov 15, 2019
Pipe
A data backbone, or broadband Internet access.
A fat pipe is a high-bandwidth connection.
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Nov 15, 2019
Pipe
(smoking) A hollow stem with a bowl at one end used for smoking, especially a tobacco pipe but also including various other forms such as a water pipe.
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Nov 15, 2019
Pipe
The distance travelled between two rest periods during which one could smoke a pipe.
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Nov 15, 2019
Pipe
(ambitransitive) To play (music) on a pipe instrument, such as a bagpipe or a flute.
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Nov 15, 2019
Pipe
(intransitive) To emit or have a shrill sound like that of a pipe; to whistle.
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Nov 15, 2019
Pipe
(intransitive) Of a queen bee: to make a high-pitched sound during certain stages of development.
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Nov 15, 2019
Pipe
To create or decorate with piping (icing).
To pipe flowers on to a cupcake
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Nov 15, 2019
Pipe
A wind instrument of music, consisting of a tube or tubes of straw, reed, wood, or metal; any tube which produces musical sounds; as, a shepherd's pipe; the pipe of an organ.
Now had he rather hear the tabor and the pipe.
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Nov 15, 2019
Pipe
Any long tube or hollow body of wood, metal, earthenware, or the like: especially, one used as a conductor of water, steam, gas, etc.
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Nov 15, 2019
Pipe
A small bowl with a hollow stem, - used in smoking tobacco, and, sometimes, other substances.
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Nov 15, 2019
Pipe
A passageway for the air in speaking and breathing; the windpipe, or one of its divisions.
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Nov 15, 2019
Pipe
The peeping whistle, call, or note of a bird.
The earliest pipe of half-awakened birds.
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Nov 15, 2019
Pipe
A roll formerly used in the English exchequer, otherwise called the Great Roll, on which were taken down the accounts of debts to the king; - so called because put together like a pipe.
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Nov 15, 2019
Pipe
A boatswain's whistle, used to call the crew to their duties; also, the sound of it.
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Nov 15, 2019
Pipe
A cask usually containing two hogsheads, or 126 wine gallons; also, the quantity which it contains.
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Nov 15, 2019
Pipe
To play on a pipe, fife, flute, or other tubular wind instrument of music.
We have piped unto you, and ye have not danced.
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Pipe
To call, convey orders, etc., by means of signals on a pipe or whistle carried by a boatswain.
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Pipe
To become hollow in the process of solodifying; - said of an ingot, as of steel.
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Nov 15, 2019
Pipe
To perform, as a tune, by playing on a pipe, flute, fife, etc.; to utter in the shrill tone of a pipe.
A robin . . . was piping a few querulous notes.
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Nov 15, 2019
Pipe
To call or direct, as a crew, by the boatswain's whistle.
As fine a ship's company as was ever piped aloft.
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Nov 15, 2019
Pipe
A long tube made of metal or plastic that is used to carry water or oil or gas etc.
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Nov 15, 2019
Pipe
A tubular wind instrument.
The piper played a beautiful tune on his pipe.
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Sep 30, 2023
Pipe
To convey by or as if by pipes.
The facility pipes water from the reservoir.
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Sep 30, 2023
FAQs
What materials are Pipes made of?
Metal, PVC, clay, among others, depending on the application.
Fiza Rafique
Sep 30, 2023
Where might you commonly find a Hose?
In gardens, fire stations, or attached to air compressors.
Fiza Rafique
Sep 30, 2023
Can Hoses be used for extended periods?
Yes, but they're often associated with temporary or movable applications.
Fiza Rafique
Sep 30, 2023
What are Pipes typically used for?
For plumbing systems, gas delivery, or long-distance oil transport.
Fiza Rafique
Sep 30, 2023
Can you fix a leaking Hose easily?
Often, yes, with patches or by replacing connectors.
Fiza Rafique
Sep 30, 2023
What's the primary distinction between Hose and Pipe?
A hose is flexible, while a pipe is rigid.
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Sep 30, 2023
Are Hoses exclusively for water?
No, they can carry other liquids and even gases.
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Sep 30, 2023
What's a common maintenance concern with Pipes?
Leaks, rust, or blockages depending on the material and what they carry.
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Sep 30, 2023
How are Pipes typically connected?
Using threaded joints, welds, or specialized fittings.
Fiza Rafique
Sep 30, 2023
Do Hoses have historical or other meanings?
Yes, referring to garments worn by medieval men covering the legs.
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Sep 30, 2023
Do Pipes have musical implications?
Absolutely, they can refer to wind instruments.
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Sep 30, 2023
Are all Pipes straight?
No, they can have bends or joints to change direction.
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Sep 30, 2023
Is walking on a Pipe safe?
It's not advised as pipes might be slippery and are not meant as walkways.
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Sep 30, 2023
Author Spotlight
Written by
Fiza RafiqueFiza Rafique is a skilled content editor at AskDifference.com, where she meticulously refines and enhances written pieces. Drawing from her vast editorial expertise, Fiza ensures clarity, accuracy, and precision in every article. Passionate about language, she continually seeks to elevate the quality of content for readers worldwide.
Edited by
Tayyaba RehmanTayyaba Rehman is a distinguished writer, currently serving as a primary contributor to askdifference.com. As a researcher in semantics and etymology, Tayyaba's passion for the complexity of languages and their distinctions has found a perfect home on the platform. Tayyaba delves into the intricacies of language, distinguishing between commonly confused words and phrases, thereby providing clarity for readers worldwide.
