helpvshexTell them apart

Quick tell: help is a noun, hex is a verb, so they fill different roles in a sentence.

Which to use

“help” is a noun and “hex” is a verb - they look or sound alike but fill different roles in a sentence.

#12,732
“help” frequency rank
#35,833
“hex” frequency rank
48565
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature help hex
Definition Hilfe 2. Person Singular Imperativ Präsens Aktiv des Verbs hexen

Where the eye mixes help and hex

Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 2 letters in sequence.

4 ch
help
3 ch
hex

Why the eye confuses help with hex

These two trip readers on the page rather than in the ear: help is [hɛlp] while hex is [hɛks]. Spoken aloud the problem disappears. In writing it persists, because they differ by 1 letter(s) in length, and the parts of speech differ too (noun vs verb), which is usually the fastest check. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 48565, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

help is recorded at frequency rank #12,732, classified as anoun, pronounced [hɛlp]. hex is at rank #35,833, tagged as averb, pronounced [hɛks].

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 48565, this pair ranks #1,243,799 of 2,006,359 scored German confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.

Orthographic DNA of help vs hex

Shared letters: eh. Private to "help": lp. Private to "hex": x.

"help" · 4 letters · shape CVCC  ·  "hex" · 3 letters · shape CVC

Known mistypes of this pair

  • helpehlp · hellp · helpp · hepl · hhelp · hlep

Frequently Asked Questions

Do "help" and "hex" mean the same thing in a sentence?
No - they are not even the same part of speech. "help" is a noun and "hex" a verb, so a sentence built for one is usually ungrammatical with the other.
Which is more common, "help" or "hex"?
"help" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #12,732 in our German list, against #35,833 for "hex". 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 "help" and "hex" is sorted above. Next: full entries or other pairs that share a letter shape.

  • Full dictionary entry for "help" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "hex" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #1,243,799 of 2,006,359 scored German confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "help" and "hex" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "heel vs hex". 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 #1,243,799 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