hathvsheatConfusable pair

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

Which to use

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

#12,617
“hath” frequency rank
#1,456
“heat” frequency rank
14073
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature hath heat
Definition third-person singular simple present indicative of have Thermal energy.

Where the eye mixes hath and heat

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

4 ch
hath
4 ch
heat

Look-alike desk: hath vs heat

These two trip readers on the page rather than in the ear: hath is /hæθ/ while heat is /hiːt/. Spoken aloud the problem disappears. In writing it persists, because they share most of their letters but differ in 3 positions, and the parts of speech differ too (verb vs noun), which is usually the fastest check. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 14073, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

hath is recorded at frequency rank #12,617, classified as averb, pronounced /hæθ/. heat is at rank #1,456, tagged as anoun, pronounced /hiːt/.

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 14073, this pair ranks #472,201 of 530,003 scored English confusable pairs - a relatively easy-to-tell-apart pair.

Orthographic DNA of hath vs heat

Shared letters: aht. Private to "hath": -. Private to "heat": e.

"hath" · 4 letters · shape CVCC  ·  "heat" · 4 letters · shape CVVC

Known mistypes of this pair

  • hathahth · haht · hathh · hatth · hhath · htah
  • heatehat · heatt · heta · hheat

Frequently Asked Questions

Is swapping "hath" for "heat" ever safe?
No - they are not even the same part of speech. "hath" is a verb and "heat" a noun, so a sentence built for one is usually ungrammatical with the other.
Which is more common, "hath" or "heat"?
"heat" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #1,456 in our English list, against #12,617 for "hath". The two are close in frequency, so neither is a safe default; check the meaning rather than guessing.

What to do next

Pronunciation already separates them, if the page still looks alike, the dictionary links below settle it.

  • Full dictionary entry for "hath" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "heat" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #472,201 of 530,003 scored English confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "hath" and "heat" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "hasta vs hath". 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 #472,201 of 530,003 scored English pairs, corpus vintage 2026-09-03, not spelling advice.

Source: Wiktionary (via kaikki.org) Structured Wiktionary extract

Source: FrequencyWords open word-frequency list