heiservsheizenWhich spelling fits?

Quick tell: heiser is a adjective, heizen is a verb, so they fill different roles in a sentence.

Which to use

“heiser” is an adjective and “heizen” is a verb - they look or sound alike but fill different roles in a sentence.

#37,562
“heiser” frequency rank
#15,911
“heizen” frequency rank
53473
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature heiser heizen
Definition rau und/oder tonlos klingend, zumeist durch Überanstrengung oder Krankheit mit Wärme oder Hitze versorgen

Where the eye mixes heiser and heizen

Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 4 letters in sequence.

6 ch
heiser
6 ch
heizen

Look-alike desk: heiser vs heizen

These two trip readers on the page rather than in the ear: heiser is [ˈhaɪ̯zɐ] while heizen is [ˈhaɪ̯t͡sn̩]. Spoken aloud the problem disappears. In writing it persists, because they share most of their letters but differ in 2 positions, and the parts of speech differ too (adjective vs verb), which is usually the fastest check. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 53473, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

heiser is recorded at frequency rank #37,562, classified as anadj, pronounced [ˈhaɪ̯zɐ]. heizen is at rank #15,911, tagged as averb, pronounced [ˈhaɪ̯t͡sn̩].

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 53473, this pair ranks #1,056,625 of 2,006,359 scored German confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.

Orthographic DNA of heiser vs heizen

Shared letters: ehi. Private to "heiser": rs. Private to "heizen": nz.

"heiser" · 6 letters · shape CVVCVC  ·  "heizen" · 6 letters · shape CVVCVC

Known mistypes of this pair

  • heiserehiser · heiesr · heiserr · heisre · heisser · hesier · hheiser · hieser
  • heizenehizen · heiezn · heizenn · heizne · heizzen · hezien · hheizen · hiezen

Frequently Asked Questions

Can "heiser" and "heizen" be used interchangeably?
No - they are not even the same part of speech. "heiser" is an adjective and "heizen" a verb, so a sentence built for one is usually ungrammatical with the other.
In ordinary German text, does "heiser" or "heizen" show up more?
"heizen" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #15,911 in our German list, against #37,562 for "heiser". The two are close in frequency, so neither is a safe default; check the meaning rather than guessing.

What to do next

Pronunciation already separates them, if the page still looks alike, the dictionary links below settle it.

  • Full dictionary entry for "heiser" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "heizen" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #1,056,625 of 2,006,359 scored German confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "heiser" and "heizen" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "heiser 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 #1,056,625 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