heavsheadyWhat's the difference?

Quick tell: hea is a noun, heady is an adjective, so they fill different roles in a sentence.

Which to use

“hea” is a noun and “heady” is an adjective - they look or sound alike but fill different roles in a sentence.

#44,248
“hea” frequency rank
#31,593
“heady” frequency rank
75841
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature hea heady
Definition Alternative spelling of hea'. Intoxicating or stupefying.

Where the spellings diverge

Shared letters are muted; the letters that actually set hea and heady apart are highlighted. They share 3 letters in sequence, which is exactly why the eye skips the difference.

3 ch
hea
5 ch
heady

Spelling & Dictionary Insight

Our dataset has no pronunciation recorded for both members, so the reliable separator here is grammatical: hea is anoun and headyanadjective. On the page they differ by 2 extra letter(s) - “hea” sits inside “heady”. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 75841, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

hea is recorded at frequency rank #44,248, classified as anoun. heady is at rank #31,593, tagged as anadj, pronounced /ˈhɛdi/.

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 75841, this pair ranks #31,870 of 530,003 scored English confusable pairs - among the most confusable pairs.

Orthographic DNA of hea vs heady

Shared letters: aeh. Private to "hea": -. Private to "heady": dy.

"hea" · 3 letters · shape CVV  ·  "heady" · 5 letters · shape CVVCV

Known mistypes of this pair

  • headyehady · haedy · headdy · headyy · heayd · heday · hheady

Frequency comparison

hea#44,248
heady#31,593

Source: FrequencyWords open word-frequency list

Frequently Asked Questions

Can "hea" and "heady" be used interchangeably?
No - they are not even the same part of speech. "hea" is a noun and "heady" an adjective, so a sentence built for one is usually ungrammatical with the other.
Which is more common, "hea" or "heady"?
"heady" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #31,593 in our English list, against #44,248 for "hea". The two are close in frequency, so neither is a safe default; check the meaning rather than guessing.

Remembering hea vs heady

The fastest way to pick the right one every time.

  • Check the role first: if you need a noun, it's “hea”; for an adjective, it's “heady”.
  • See each word in full, definition, IPA, etymology and its other confusables. Full “hea” entry
  • Browse more pairs most likely to be confused. Most confusable

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

Source: FrequencyWords open word-frequency list FrequencyWords open word-frequency list