Which to use
“heel” and “hells” are a confusable German pair: similar on the page, but distinct in meaning, check the gloss before you choose.
- #48,960
- “heel” frequency rank
- #34,160
- “hells” frequency rank
- 83120
- confusion score
Side-by-Side Comparison
| Feature | heel | hells |
|---|---|---|
| Definition | der hintere Teil des Fußes unter dem Knöchel | Plural des Substantivs hell |
Where the eye mixes heel and hells
Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 3 letters in sequence. heel runs 4 letters (CVVC) against hells's 5 (CVCCC) - the length gap alone is often enough to separate them once you know to check it.
Look-alike desk: heel vs hells
A purely visual mix-up. heel ([hiːl]) and hells ([hɛlz]) 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 83120, 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]. hells is at rank #34,160, tagged as anoun, pronounced [hɛlz].
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 83120, this pair ranks #145,310 of 2,006,359 scored German confusable pairs - among the most confusable pairs.
Orthographic DNA of heel vs hells
Shared letters: ehl. Private to "heel": -. Private to "hells": s.
"heel" · 4 letters · shape CVVC · "hells" · 5 letters · shape CVCCC
Known mistypes of this pair
Frequently Asked Questions
Do "heel" and "hells" mean the same thing in a sentence?
In ordinary German text, does "heel" or "hells" show up more?
After this comparison
Eye-level mix-up between "heel" and "hells" 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 "hells" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
- This pair ranks #145,310 of 2,006,359 scored German confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
- "heel" and "hells" 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 #145,310 of 2,006,359 scored German pairs, corpus vintage 2026-09-03, not spelling advice.