Which to use
“hart” is a noun and “hurts” is a verb - they look or sound alike but fill different roles in a sentence.
- #6,692
- “hart” frequency rank
- #4,309
- “hurts” frequency rank
- 11001
- confusion score
Side-by-Side Comparison
| Feature | hart | hurts |
|---|---|---|
| Definition | A male deer, especially the male of the red deer after his fifth year. | third-person singular simple present indicative of hurt |
Where the spellings diverge
Shared letters are muted; the letters that actually set hart and hurts apart are highlighted. They share 3 letters in sequence, which is exactly why the eye skips the difference.
Spelling & Dictionary Insight
hart and hurts form a confusable pair in the English index, two distinct headwords that are easily confused because they look alike, sound alike, or both. They differ by 1 letter(s) in length - close enough that the eye skips over the difference, far enough that meaning fully diverges. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 11001, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.
hart is recorded at frequency rank #6,692, classified as anoun, pronounced /hɑːt/. hurts is at rank #4,309, tagged as averb, pronounced /hɜːts/.
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 11001, this pair ranks #489,398 of 530,003 scored English confusable pairs - a relatively easy-to-tell-apart pair.
Frequency comparison
Frequently Asked Questions
Can "hart" and "hurts" be used interchangeably?
Remembering hart vs hurts
The fastest way to pick the right one every time.
- Check the role first: if you need a noun, it's “hart”; for a verb, it's “hurts”.
- See each word in full, definition, IPA, etymology and its other confusables. Full “hart” entry
- Browse more pairs most likely to be confused. Most confusable