Which to use
“hard” is an adjective and “hed” is a noun - they look or sound alike but fill different roles in a sentence.
- #273
- “hard” frequency rank
- #44,253
- “hed” frequency rank
- 44526
- confusion score
Side-by-Side Comparison
| Feature | hard | hed |
|---|---|---|
| Definition | Solid and firm. | The headline of a news story. |
Letter map: hard vs hed
Shared letters muted; letters that set hard and hed apart highlighted. Shared run: 2.
Part-of-speech tell for hard / hed
Our dataset has no pronunciation recorded for both members, so the reliable separator here is grammatical: hard is anadjective and hedanoun. On the page they differ by 1 letter(s) in length. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 44526, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.
hard is recorded at frequency rank #273, classified as anadj, pronounced /hɑːd/. hed is at rank #44,253, tagged as anoun.
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 44526, this pair ranks #229,698 of 530,003 scored English confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.
Orthographic DNA of hard vs hed
Shared letters: dh. Private to "hard": ar. Private to "hed": e.
"hard" · 4 letters · shape CVCC · "hed" · 3 letters · shape CVC
Known mistypes of this pair
- hard ← ahrd · hadr · hardd · harrd · hhard · hrad
Frequently Asked Questions
Do "hard" and "hed" mean the same thing in a sentence?
Which is more common, "hard" or "hed"?
After this comparison
You've compared "hard" and "hed". Here's where to go from here.
- Full dictionary entry for "hard" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
- Full dictionary entry for "hed" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
- This pair ranks #229,698 of 530,003 scored English confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
- "hard" and "hed" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "hed vs HRW". 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 #229,698 of 530,003 scored English pairs, corpus vintage 2026-09-03, not spelling advice.