Which to use
“heel” is a noun and “heil” is an adjective - they look or sound alike but fill different roles in a sentence.
- #48,960
- “heel” frequency rank
- #4,208
- “heil” frequency rank
- 53168
- confusion score
Side-by-Side Comparison
| Feature | heel | heil |
|---|---|---|
| Definition | der hintere Teil des Fußes unter dem Knöchel | nicht zerbrochen; unversehrt; nicht verletzt |
Where the eye mixes heel and heil
Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 3 letters in sequence. heel and heil follow the identical consonant-vowel pattern (CVVC). Same shape at a glance is often the real trap, independent of shared letters.
Look-alike desk: heel vs heil
These two trip readers on the page rather than in the ear: heel is [hiːl] while heil is [haɪ̯l]. Spoken aloud the problem disappears. In writing it persists, because they differ by a single letter - e in “heel” becomes i in “heil”, and the parts of speech differ too (noun vs adjective), which is usually the fastest check. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 53168, 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]. heil is at rank #4,208, tagged as anadj, pronounced [haɪ̯l].
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 53168, this pair ranks #1,068,563 of 2,006,359 scored German confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.
Orthographic DNA of heel vs heil
Shared letters: ehl. Private to "heel": -. Private to "heil": i.
"heel" · 4 letters · shape CVVC · "heil" · 4 letters · shape CVVC
Known mistypes of this pair
Frequently Asked Questions
Do "heel" and "heil" mean the same thing in a sentence?
Frequency check: "heel" vs "heil" - which ranks higher?
After this comparison
Pronunciation already separates them, if the page still looks alike, the dictionary links below settle it.
- Full dictionary entry for "heel" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
- Full dictionary entry for "heil" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
- This pair ranks #1,068,563 of 2,006,359 scored German confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
- "heel" and "heil" 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 #1,068,563 of 2,006,359 scored German pairs, corpus vintage 2026-09-03, not spelling advice.