Which to use
“he's” is a contraction and “heist” is a noun - they look or sound alike but fill different roles in a sentence.
- #227
- “he's” frequency rank
- #17,379
- “heist” frequency rank
- 17606
- confusion score
Side-by-Side Comparison
| Feature | he's | heist |
|---|---|---|
| Definition | Contraction of he + is. | A robbery or burglary, especially from an institution such as a bank or museum. |
Where the eye mixes he's and heist
Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 3 letters in sequence.
Look-alike desk: he's vs heist
These two trip readers on the page rather than in the ear: he's is /ˈhiːz/ while heist is /haɪst/. 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 (contraction vs noun), which is usually the fastest check. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 17606, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.
he's is recorded at frequency rank #227, classified as acontraction, pronounced /ˈhiːz/. heist is at rank #17,379, tagged as anoun, pronounced /haɪst/.
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 17606, this pair ranks #450,312 of 530,003 scored English confusable pairs - a relatively easy-to-tell-apart pair.
Orthographic DNA of he's vs heist
Shared letters: ehs. Private to "he's": -. Private to "heist": it.
"he's" · 3 letters · shape CVC · "heist" · 5 letters · shape CVVCC
Known mistypes of this pair
- heist ← ehist · heisst · heistt · heits · hesit · hheist · hiest
Frequently Asked Questions
Can "he's" and "heist" be used interchangeably?
Which is more common, "he's" or "heist"?
After this comparison
Visual near-miss handled. Browse the word pages or a neighbour when the next look-alike shows up.
- Full dictionary entry for "he's" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
- Full dictionary entry for "heist" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
- This pair ranks #450,312 of 530,003 scored English confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
- "he's" and "heist" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "heist 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 #450,312 of 530,003 scored English pairs, corpus vintage 2026-09-03, not spelling advice.