HeerevsHefeWhich spelling fits?

Which to use

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

#34,156
“Heere” frequency rank
#19,250
“Hefe” frequency rank
53406
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature Heere Hefe
Definition Nominativ Plural des Substantivs Heer einzelliger Pilz (zumeist Saccharomycetaceae aber auch Pichiaceae und Incertae sedis), der sich sexuell und/oder asexuell zumeist durch Sprossung, aber auch durch Spaltung (Schizosaccharomycetaceae), vermehrt

Where the eye mixes Heere and Hefe

Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 3 letters in sequence.

5 ch
Heere
4 ch
Hefe

Why the eye confuses Heere with Hefe

A purely visual mix-up. Heere ([ˈheːʁə]) and Hefe ([ˈheːfə]) 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 53406, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

Heere is recorded at frequency rank #34,156, classified as anoun, pronounced [ˈheːʁə]. Hefe is at rank #19,250, tagged as anoun, pronounced [ˈheːfə].

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 53406, this pair ranks #1,059,260 of 2,006,359 scored German confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.

Orthographic DNA of Heere vs Hefe

Shared letters: eh. Private to "Heere": r. Private to "Hefe": f.

"Heere" · 5 letters · shape CVVCV  ·  "Hefe" · 4 letters · shape CVCV

Known mistypes of this pair

  • Heereehere · heeer · heerre · heree · hheere
  • Hefeehfe · heef · heffe · hfee · hhefe

Frequently Asked Questions

Do "Heere" and "Hefe" mean the same thing in a sentence?
No. They are said differently ([ˈheːʁə] versus [ˈheːfə]) and carry different meanings; reading the sentence aloud is usually enough to catch the wrong one.
In ordinary German text, does "Heere" or "Hefe" show up more?
"Hefe" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #19,250 in our German list, against #34,156 for "Heere". The two are close in frequency, so neither is a safe default; check the meaning rather than guessing.

What to do next

Eye-level mix-up between "Heere" and "Hefe" is sorted above. Next: full entries or other pairs that share a letter shape.

  • Full dictionary entry for "Heere" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "Hefe" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #1,059,260 of 2,006,359 scored German confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "Heere" and "Hefe" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "Heere 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 #1,059,260 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