hathvshetTell them apart

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

Which to use

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

#12,617
“hath” frequency rank
#24,186
“het” frequency rank
36803
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature hath het
Definition third-person singular simple present indicative of have A heterosexual person.

Where the eye mixes hath and het

Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 2 letters in sequence.

4 ch
hath
3 ch
het

Look-alike desk: hath vs het

These two trip readers on the page rather than in the ear: hath is /hæθ/ while het is /hɛt/. Spoken aloud the problem disappears. In writing it persists, because they differ by 1 letter(s) in length, and the parts of speech differ too (verb vs noun), which is usually the fastest check. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 36803, 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/. het is at rank #24,186, tagged as anoun, pronounced /hɛt/.

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 36803, this pair ranks #300,019 of 530,003 scored English confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.

Orthographic DNA of hath vs het

Shared letters: ht. Private to "hath": a. Private to "het": e.

"hath" · 4 letters · shape CVCC  ·  "het" · 3 letters · shape CVC

Known mistypes of this pair

  • hathahth · haht · hathh · hatth · hhath · htah

Frequently Asked Questions

Is swapping "hath" for "het" ever safe?
No - they are not even the same part of speech. "hath" is a verb and "het" a noun, so a sentence built for one is usually ungrammatical with the other.
Which is more common, "hath" or "het"?
"hath" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #12,617 in our English list, against #24,186 for "het". The two are close in frequency, so neither is a safe default; check the meaning rather than guessing.

After this comparison

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 "het" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #300,019 of 530,003 scored English confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "hath" and "het" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "het vs HIIT". 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 #300,019 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