English homophones
Hess/Hesse
"Hess" (#23,298 written frequency) beats "Hesse" (#34,104) in this 2-word /hɛs/ cluster. Size rank #133 of 1,007 English groups.
Data vintage
Frequency splits the cluster
These 2 spellings keep the same /hɛs/ reading, but written frequency splits them hard: "Hess" leads at #23,298, with "Hesse" trailing at #34,104.
Spelling pairs in this cluster
- Shared stem "hess" then splits - "Hess" (4 letters) vs "Hesse" (5).
Orthographic DNA of this cluster
Shared letters across Hess, Hesse: ehs. Private letters are the ones only one spelling owns: the eye's fastest tell once sound is out of the picture.
Hess
4 letters · 1 vowels · shape CVCC
Inventory ehs · no private letters vs siblings
Hesse
5 letters · 2 vowels · shape CVCCV
Inventory ehs · no private letters vs siblings
Pick the spelling from the meaning
- Write "Hess" when you mean: A habitational surname from German of German and Ashkenazi origin, denoting a person from Hesse.
- Write "Hesse" when you mean: A state of modern Germany.
Known mistypes of these spellings
Edit-distance variants recorded against this cluster: useful when a search or OCR feed lands on the wrong form.
Each spelling
Nearby English homophone groups
What to do next
You've reviewed the 2-spelling cluster (Hess, Hesse). Here's where to go from here.
- "Hess" is the most frequent headword in this 2-spelling cluster (rank #23,298 in English). Full entry
- Among English homophone groups, a cluster of 2 spellings ranks #133 by size (1,007 groups in this vintage). Corpus statistics
- Explore a nearby 2-spelling cluster: heart · hart. Nearby cluster
- Each spelling in "Hess, Hesse" has its own headword page with definition, IPA, and misspelling variants. First entry
PlainSpell is a reference corpus, not spelling advice. Verify unusual forms in context.