heelvsHeereWhich spelling fits?

Which to use

“heel” and “Heere” are a confusable German pair: similar on the page, but distinct in meaning, check the gloss before you choose.

#48,960
“heel” frequency rank
#34,156
“Heere” frequency rank
83116
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature heel Heere
Definition der hintere Teil des Fußes unter dem Knöchel Nominativ Plural des Substantivs Heer

Where the eye mixes heel and Heere

Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 3 letters in sequence. heel runs 4 letters (CVVC) against Heere's 5 (CVVCV) - the length gap alone is often enough to separate them once you know to check it.

4 ch
heel
5 ch
Heere

Look-alike desk: heel vs Heere

A purely visual mix-up. heel ([hiːl]) and Heere ([ˈheːʁə]) 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 letter(s) in length. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 83116, 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]. Heere is at rank #34,156, tagged as anoun, pronounced [ˈheːʁə].

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 83116, this pair ranks #145,395 of 2,006,359 scored German confusable pairs - among the most confusable pairs.

Orthographic DNA of heel vs Heere

Shared letters: eh. Private to "heel": l. Private to "Heere": r.

"heel" · 4 letters · shape CVVC  ·  "Heere" · 5 letters · shape CVVCV

Known mistypes of this pair

  • heel ← ehel · heell · hheel
  • Heere ← ehere · heeer · heerre · heree · hheere

Frequently Asked Questions

Is swapping "heel" for "Heere" ever safe?
No. They are said differently ([hiːl] versus [ˈheːʁə]) and carry different meanings; reading the sentence aloud is usually enough to catch the wrong one.
In ordinary German text, does "heel" or "Heere" show up more?
"Heere" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #34,156 in our German list, against #48,960 for "heel". The two are close in frequency, so neither is a safe default; check the meaning rather than guessing.

Useful next steps

Eye-level mix-up between "heel" and "Heere" 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 "Heere" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #145,395 of 2,006,359 scored German confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "heel" and "Heere" 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 #145,395 of 2,006,359 scored German pairs, corpus vintage 2026-09-03, not spelling advice.

Source: Wiktionary (via kaikki.org) Structured Wiktionary extract

Source: FrequencyWords open word-frequency list