Which to use
“heel” and “heels” are a confusable German pair: similar on the page, but distinct in meaning, check the gloss before you choose.
- #48,960
- “heel” frequency rank
- #17,932
- “heels” frequency rank
- 66892
- confusion score
Side-by-Side Comparison
| Feature | heel | heels |
|---|---|---|
| Definition | der hintere Teil des Fußes unter dem Knöchel | Plural des Substantivs heel |
Where the eye mixes heel and heels
Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 4 letters in sequence. heel runs 4 letters (CVVC) against heels's 5 (CVVCC) - the length gap alone is often enough to separate them once you know to check it.
Visual trap between heel and heels
A purely visual mix-up. heel ([hiːl]) and heels ([hiːlz]) 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 extra letter(s) - “heel” sits inside “heels”. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 66892, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.
heel is recorded at frequency rank #48,960, classified as anoun, pronounced [hiːl]. heels is at rank #17,932, tagged as anoun, pronounced [hiːlz].
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 66892, this pair ranks #558,087 of 2,006,359 scored German confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.
Orthographic DNA of heel vs heels
Shared letters: ehl. Private to "heel": -. Private to "heels": s.
"heel" · 4 letters · shape CVVC · "heels" · 5 letters · shape CVVCC
Known mistypes of this pair
Frequently Asked Questions
Can "heel" and "heels" be used interchangeably?
Frequency check: "heel" vs "heels" - which ranks higher?
Useful next steps
Eye-level mix-up between "heel" and "heels" is sorted above. Next: full entries or other pairs that share a letter shape.
- Full dictionary entry for "heel" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
- Full dictionary entry for "heels" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
- This pair ranks #558,087 of 2,006,359 scored German confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
- "heel" and "heels" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "heel vs Hemer". 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 #558,087 of 2,006,359 scored German pairs, corpus vintage 2026-09-03, not spelling advice.