HeravsherbWhich spelling fits?

Quick tell: Hera is a noun, herb is an adjective, so they fill different roles in a sentence.

Which to use

“Hera” is a noun and “herb” is an adjective - they look or sound alike but fill different roles in a sentence.

#35,231
“Hera” frequency rank
#22,757
“herb” frequency rank
57988
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature Hera herb
Definition höchste der olympischen Götter, Schwester und Gattin des Zeus in der Nähe von bitter, das Gegenteil von süßlich

Where the eye mixes Hera and herb

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

4 ch
Hera
4 ch
herb

Why the eye confuses Hera with herb

These two trip readers on the page rather than in the ear: Hera is [ˈheːʁa] while herb is [hɛʁp]. Spoken aloud the problem disappears. In writing it persists, because they differ by a single letter - a in “Hera” becomes b in “herb”, and the parts of speech differ too (noun vs adjective), which is usually the fastest check. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 57988, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

Hera is recorded at frequency rank #35,231, classified as anoun, pronounced [ˈheːʁa]. herb is at rank #22,757, tagged as anadj, pronounced [hɛʁp].

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 57988, this pair ranks #879,944 of 2,006,359 scored German confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.

Orthographic DNA of Hera vs herb

Shared letters: ehr. Private to "Hera": a. Private to "herb": b.

"Hera" · 4 letters · shape CVCV  ·  "herb" · 4 letters · shape CVCC

Known mistypes of this pair

  • Heraehra · herra · hhera · hrea
  • herbehrb · hebr · herbb · herrb · hherb · hreb

Frequently Asked Questions

Do "Hera" and "herb" mean the same thing in a sentence?
No - they are not even the same part of speech. "Hera" is a noun and "herb" an adjective, so a sentence built for one is usually ungrammatical with the other.
Frequency check: "Hera" vs "herb" - which ranks higher?
"herb" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #22,757 in our German list, against #35,231 for "Hera". The two are close in frequency, so neither is a safe default; check the meaning rather than guessing.

Useful next steps

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

  • Full dictionary entry for "Hera" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "herb" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #879,944 of 2,006,359 scored German confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "Hera" and "herb" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "heel vs Hera". 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 #879,944 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