Which to use
“heel” and “Hehl” are a confusable German pair: similar on the page, but distinct in meaning, check the gloss before you choose.
- #48,960
- “heel” frequency rank
- #33,632
- “Hehl” frequency rank
- 82592
- confusion score
Side-by-Side Comparison
| Feature | heel | Hehl |
|---|---|---|
| Definition | der hintere Teil des Fußes unter dem Knöchel | etwas verheimlichen, verbergen (meist verneint) |
Where the eye mixes heel and Hehl
Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 3 letters in sequence. heel (CVVC) and Hehl (CVCC) run the same length but a different consonant-vowel pattern - the shape difference is usually the fastest tell.
Look-alike desk: heel vs Hehl
A purely visual mix-up. heel ([hiːl]) and Hehl ([heːl]) 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 a single letter - e in “heel” becomes h in “Hehl”. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 82592, 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]. Hehl is at rank #33,632, tagged as anoun, pronounced [heːl].
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 82592, this pair ranks #154,474 of 2,006,359 scored German confusable pairs - among the most confusable pairs.
Orthographic DNA of heel vs Hehl
Shared letters: ehl. Private to "heel": -. Private to "Hehl": -.
"heel" · 4 letters · shape CVVC · "Hehl" · 4 letters · shape CVCC
Known mistypes of this pair
Frequently Asked Questions
Do "heel" and "Hehl" mean the same thing in a sentence?
In ordinary German text, does "heel" or "Hehl" show up more?
What to do next
Eye-level mix-up between "heel" and "Hehl" 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 "Hehl" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
- This pair ranks #154,474 of 2,006,359 scored German confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
- "heel" and "Hehl" 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 #154,474 of 2,006,359 scored German pairs, corpus vintage 2026-09-03, not spelling advice.