Which to use
“hea” is a noun and “hearn” is a verb - they look or sound alike but fill different roles in a sentence.
- #44,248
- “hea” frequency rank
- #34,519
- “hearn” frequency rank
- 78767
- confusion score
Side-by-Side Comparison
| Feature | hea | hearn |
|---|---|---|
| Definition | Alternative spelling of hea'. | past participle of hear |
Letter map: hea vs hearn
Shared letters muted; letters that set hea and hearn apart highlighted. Shared run: 3. hea runs 3 letters (CVV) against hearn's 5 (CVVCC) - the length gap alone is often enough to separate them once you know to check it.
Role in the sentence - hea and hearn
Our dataset has no pronunciation recorded for both members, so the reliable separator here is grammatical: hea is anoun and hearnaverb. On the page they differ by 2 extra letter(s) - “hea” sits inside “hearn”. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 78767, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.
hea is recorded at frequency rank #44,248, classified as anoun. hearn is at rank #34,519, tagged as averb, pronounced /ˈhɪən/.
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 78767, this pair ranks #23,829 of 530,003 scored English confusable pairs - among the most confusable pairs.
Orthographic DNA of hea vs hearn
Shared letters: aeh. Private to "hea": -. Private to "hearn": nr.
"hea" · 3 letters · shape CVV · "hearn" · 5 letters · shape CVVCC
Known mistypes of this pair
- hearn ← eharn · haern · heanr · hearnn · hearrn · heran · hhearn
Frequently Asked Questions
Do "hea" and "hearn" mean the same thing in a sentence?
In ordinary English text, does "hea" or "hearn" show up more?
What to do next
You've compared "hea" and "hearn". Here's where to go from here.
- Full dictionary entry for "hea" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
- Full dictionary entry for "hearn" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
- This pair ranks #23,829 of 530,003 scored English confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
- "hea" and "hearn" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "hea vs Herat". 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 #23,829 of 530,003 scored English pairs, corpus vintage 2026-09-03, not spelling advice.