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
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.
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.
"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.
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.
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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Comparison Chart
Flexibility
Flexible.
Rigid.
Typical Usage
Temporary or movable applications.
Permanent or fixed setups.
Material
Often made of rubber or flexible plastics.
Can be metal, PVC, clay, etc.
Connection
Quick-release connectors or clamps.
Threaded joints, welds, or specialized fittings.
Examples
Garden hose, fire hose.
Water pipes, gas pipes, oil pipelines.
Compare with Definitions
Hose
To wash, spray, or drench with a stream of water.
I hosed down the driveway.
Pipe
A rigid tube for transporting or distributing fluids.
The kitchen sink's pipe was leaking.
Hose
A protective covering for wires or cables.
The wires have a rubber hose to prevent damage.
Pipe
To speak in a high-pitched or piercing tone.
She piped up with an answer.
Hose
Tubular piece in machinery or equipment.
The air conditioner's drain hose was blocked.
Pipe
A tube used to convey water, gas, oil, or other fluid substances.
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.
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
Hose
A flexible tube conveying water, used chiefly for watering plants and in firefighting
A sprinkler hose
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
Hose
Stockings, socks, and tights (especially in commercial use)
Her hose had been laddered
Pipe
A command which causes the output from one routine to be the input for another.
Hose
Water or spray with a hose
He was hosing down the driveway
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
Hose
Pl. hose Stockings; socks. Used only in the plural.
Pipe
Convey (water, gas, oil, or other fluid substances) through a pipe or pipes
Water from the lakes is piped to Manchester
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.
Pipe
Play (a tune) on a pipe or pipes
He believed he'd heard music—a tune being piped
Hose
Breeches reaching down to the knees. Used only in the plural.
Pipe
(of a bird) sing in a high or shrill voice
Outside at the back a curlew piped
Hose
Pl. hos·es A flexible tube for conveying liquids or gases under pressure.
Pipe
Decorate (clothing or soft furnishings) with thin cord covered in fabric and inserted into a seam.
Hose
To water, drench, or wash with a hose
Hosed down the deck.
Hosed off the dog.
Pipe
Arrange (food, particularly icing or cream) in decorative lines or patterns
She had been piping cream round a flan
Hose
To attack and kill (someone), typically by use of a firearm:
Pipe
Propagate (a pink or similar plant) by taking a cutting at the joint of a stem.
Hose
To exploit, cheat, or defraud.
Pipe
A hollow cylinder or tube used to conduct a liquid, gas, or finely divided solid.
Hose
(countable) A flexible tube conveying water or other fluid.
Pipe
A section or piece of such a tube.
Hose
(uncountable) A stocking-like garment worn on the legs; pantyhose, women's tights.
Pipe
A device for smoking, consisting of a tube of wood, clay, or other material with a small bowl at one end.
Hose
(obsolete) Close-fitting trousers or breeches, reaching to the knee.
Pipe
An amount of smoking material, such as tobacco, needed to fill the bowl of a pipe; a pipeful.
Hose
(transitive) To water or spray with a hose.
Pipe
A tubular part or organ of the body.
Hose
(transitive) To spray as if with a hose; to spray in great quantity.
Pipe
Pipes The passages of the human respiratory system.
Hose
(transitive) To deliver using a hose.
Pipe
A large wine cask, especially one having a capacity of 126 gallons or 2 hogsheads (478 liters).
Hose
(transitive) To provide with hose garment
Pipe
This volume as a unit of liquid measure.
Hose
(transitive) To trick or deceive.
Pipe
A tubular wind instrument, such as a flute.
Hose
To break a computer so everything needs to be reinstalled; to wipe all files.
Pipe
Any of the tubes in an organ.
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.
Pipe
Pipes A small wind instrument, consisting of tubes of different lengths bound together.
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.
Pipe
Pipes A bagpipe.
Hose
Covering for the feet and lower part of the legs; a stocking or stockings.
Pipe
Pipes(Informal) The vocal cords; the voice, especially as used in singing.
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.
Pipe
A birdcall.
Hose
Socks and stockings and tights collectively (the British include underwear as hosiery)
Pipe
(Nautical) A whistle used for signaling crew members
A boatswain's pipe.
Hose
Man's garment of the 16th and 17th centuries; worn with a doublet
Pipe
A vertical cylindrical vein of ore.
Hose
A flexible pipe for conveying a liquid or gas
Pipe
One of the vertical veins of eruptive origin in which diamonds are found in South Africa.
Hose
Water with a hose;
Hose the lawn
Pipe
(Geology) An eruptive passageway opening into the crater of a volcano.
Hose
A flexible tube for conveying liquids or gases.
I used a garden hose to water the plants.
Pipe
(Metallurgy) A cone-shaped cavity in a steel ingot, formed during cooling by escaping gases.
Hose
Men's close-fitting garment covering the legs.
Medieval knights wore hoses.
Pipe
To convey (liquid or gas) by means of pipes.
Pipe
To convey as if by pipes, especially to transmit by wire or cable
Piped music into the store.
Pipe
To provide with pipes or connect with pipes.
Pipe
To play (a tune) on a pipe or pipes.
Pipe
To lead by playing on pipes.
Pipe
To signal (crew members) with a boatswain's pipe.
Pipe
To receive aboard or mark the departure of by sounding a boatswain's pipe.
Pipe
To utter in a shrill reedy tone.
Pipe
To furnish (a garment or fabric) with piping.
Pipe
To force through a pastry tube, as frosting onto a cake.
Pipe
(Slang) To take a look at; notice.
Pipe
To play on a pipe.
Pipe
To speak shrilly; make a shrill sound.
Pipe
To chirp or whistle, as a bird does.
Pipe
(Nautical) To signal the crew with a boatswain's pipe.
Pipe
(Metallurgy) To develop conical cavities during solidification.
Pipe
Meanings relating to a wind instrument.
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.
Pipe
(music) A tube used to produce sound in an organ; an organ pipe.
Pipe
The key or sound of the voice.
Pipe
A high-pitched sound, especially of a bird.
Pipe
Meanings relating to a hollow conduit.
Pipe
A rigid tube that transports water, steam, or other fluid, as used in plumbing and numerous other applications.
Pipe
A tubular passageway in the human body such as a blood vessel or the windpipe.
Pipe
(slang) A man's penis.
Pipe
Meanings relating to a container.
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.)
Pipe
The contents of such a vessel, as a liquid measure, sometimes set at 126 wine gallons; half a tun.
Pipe
Meanings relating to something resembling a tube.
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.
Pipe
A type of pasta similar to macaroni.
Pipe
(geology) A vertical conduit through the Earth's crust below a volcano through which magma has passed, often filled with volcanic breccia.
Pipe
(lacrosse) One of the goalposts of the goal.
Pipe
(mining) An elongated or irregular body or vein of ore.
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.
Pipe
Meanings relating to computing.
Pipe
(computing) A mechanism that enables one program to communicate with another by sending its output to the other as input.
Pipe
A data backbone, or broadband Internet access.
A fat pipe is a high-bandwidth connection.
Pipe
Meanings relating to a smoking implement.
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.
Pipe
The distance travelled between two rest periods during which one could smoke a pipe.
Pipe
(slang) A telephone.
Pipe
(ambitransitive) To play (music) on a pipe instrument, such as a bagpipe or a flute.
Pipe
(intransitive) To shout loudly and at high pitch.
Pipe
(intransitive) To emit or have a shrill sound like that of a pipe; to whistle.
Pipe
(intransitive) Of a queen bee: to make a high-pitched sound during certain stages of development.
Pipe
Of a metal ingot: to become hollow in the process of solidifying.
Pipe
(transitive) To convey or transport (something) by means of pipes.
Pipe
(transitive) To install or configure with pipes.
Pipe
(transitive) To dab moisture away from.
Pipe
To lead or conduct as if by pipes, especially by wired transmission.
Pipe
) at the command line.
Pipe
To create or decorate with piping (icing).
To pipe flowers on to a cupcake
Pipe
To order or signal by a note pattern on a boatswain's pipe.
Pipe
To have sexual intercourse with a female.
Pipe
To see.
Pipe
To invent or embellish (a story).
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.
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.
Pipe
A small bowl with a hollow stem, - used in smoking tobacco, and, sometimes, other substances.
Pipe
A passageway for the air in speaking and breathing; the windpipe, or one of its divisions.
Pipe
The key or sound of the voice.
Pipe
The peeping whistle, call, or note of a bird.
The earliest pipe of half-awakened birds.
Pipe
The bagpipe; as, the pipes of Lucknow.
Pipe
An elongated body or vein of ore.
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.
Pipe
A boatswain's whistle, used to call the crew to their duties; also, the sound of it.
Pipe
A cask usually containing two hogsheads, or 126 wine gallons; also, the quantity which it contains.
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.
Pipe
To call, convey orders, etc., by means of signals on a pipe or whistle carried by a boatswain.
Pipe
To emit or have a shrill sound like that of a pipe; to whistle.
Pipe
To become hollow in the process of solodifying; - said of an ingot, as of steel.
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.
Pipe
To call or direct, as a crew, by the boatswain's whistle.
As fine a ship's company as was ever piped aloft.
Pipe
To furnish or equip with pipes; as, to pipe an engine, or a building.
Pipe
A tube with a small bowl at one end; used for smoking tobacco
Pipe
A long tube made of metal or plastic that is used to carry water or oil or gas etc.
Pipe
A hollow cylindrical shape
Pipe
A tubular wind instrument
Pipe
The flues and stops on a pipe organ
Pipe
Utter a shrill cry
Pipe
Transport by pipeline;
Pipe oil, water, and gas into the desert
Pipe
Play on a pipe;
Pipe a tune
Pipe
Trim with piping;
Pipe the skirt
Pipe
A tubular wind instrument.
The piper played a beautiful tune on his pipe.
Pipe
A cylindrical vein of ore or rock.
Miners found a diamond pipe.
Pipe
To convey by or as if by pipes.
The facility pipes water from the reservoir.
Common Curiosities
What materials are Pipes made of?
Metal, PVC, clay, among others, depending on the application.
Where might you commonly find a Hose?
In gardens, fire stations, or attached to air compressors.
Can Hoses be used for extended periods?
Yes, but they're often associated with temporary or movable applications.
What are Pipes typically used for?
For plumbing systems, gas delivery, or long-distance oil transport.
Can you fix a leaking Hose easily?
Often, yes, with patches or by replacing connectors.
How are Hoses typically stored?
Often coiled or wound on a reel.
What's the primary distinction between Hose and Pipe?
A hose is flexible, while a pipe is rigid.
Are Hoses exclusively for water?
No, they can carry other liquids and even gases.
What's a common maintenance concern with Pipes?
Leaks, rust, or blockages depending on the material and what they carry.
How are Pipes typically connected?
Using threaded joints, welds, or specialized fittings.
Do Hoses have historical or other meanings?
Yes, referring to garments worn by medieval men covering the legs.
Do Pipes have musical implications?
Absolutely, they can refer to wind instruments.
Are all Pipes straight?
No, they can have bends or joints to change direction.
Is walking on a Pipe safe?
It's not advised as pipes might be slippery and are not meant as walkways.
Can you walk on a Hose?
Generally, yes, as they're durable but flexible.
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Written by
Fiza RafiqueFiza Rafique is a skilled content writer 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.
