Which to use
“heel” is a noun and “heul” is a verb - they look or sound alike but fill different roles in a sentence.
- #48,960
- “heel” frequency rank
- #33,110
- “heul” frequency rank
- 82070
- confusion score
Side-by-Side Comparison
| Feature | heel | heul |
|---|---|---|
| Definition | der hintere Teil des Fußes unter dem Knöchel | 2. Person Singular Imperativ Präsens Aktiv des Verbs heulen |
Where the eye mixes heel and heul
Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 3 letters in sequence. heel and heul follow the identical consonant-vowel pattern (CVVC). Same shape at a glance is often the real trap, independent of shared letters.
Why the eye confuses heel with heul
These two trip readers on the page rather than in the ear: heel is [hiːl] while heul is [hɔɪ̯l]. Spoken aloud the problem disappears. In writing it persists, because they differ by a single letter - e in “heel” becomes u in “heul”, and the parts of speech differ too (noun vs verb), which is usually the fastest check. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 82070, 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]. heul is at rank #33,110, tagged as averb, pronounced [hɔɪ̯l].
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 82070, this pair ranks #163,892 of 2,006,359 scored German confusable pairs - among the most confusable pairs.
Orthographic DNA of heel vs heul
Shared letters: ehl. Private to "heel": -. Private to "heul": u.
"heel" · 4 letters · shape CVVC · "heul" · 4 letters · shape CVVC
Known mistypes of this pair
Frequently Asked Questions
Is swapping "heel" for "heul" ever safe?
Frequency check: "heel" vs "heul" - which ranks higher?
What to do next
Eye-level mix-up between "heel" and "heul" 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 "heul" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
- This pair ranks #163,892 of 2,006,359 scored German confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
- "heel" and "heul" 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 #163,892 of 2,006,359 scored German pairs, corpus vintage 2026-09-03, not spelling advice.