Which to use
“head” and “heath” are a confusable English pair: similar on the page, but distinct in meaning, check the gloss before you choose.
- #288
- “head” frequency rank
- #10,221
- “heath” frequency rank
- 10509
- confusion score
Side-by-Side Comparison
| Feature | head | heath |
|---|---|---|
| Definition | The part of the body of an animal or human which contains the brain, mouth, and main sense organs. | A tract of level uncultivated land with sandy soil and scrubby vegetation; heathland. |
Where the eye mixes head and heath
Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 3 letters in sequence.
Why the eye confuses head with heath
A purely visual mix-up. head (/ˈhɛd/) and heath (/hiːθ/) are said differently, so reading them aloud is the quickest way to catch the wrong one. On the page they stay close: they differ by 1 letter(s) in length. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 10509, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.
head is recorded at frequency rank #288, classified as anoun, pronounced /ˈhɛd/. heath is at rank #10,221, tagged as anoun, pronounced /hiːθ/.
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 10509, this pair ranks #491,956 of 530,003 scored English confusable pairs - a relatively easy-to-tell-apart pair.
Orthographic DNA of head vs heath
Shared letters: aeh. Private to "head": d. Private to "heath": t.
"head" · 4 letters · shape CVVC · "heath" · 5 letters · shape CVVCC
Known mistypes of this pair
Frequently Asked Questions
Can "head" and "heath" be used interchangeably?
Which is more common, "head" or "heath"?
After this comparison
Eye-level mix-up between "head" and "heath" is sorted above. Next: full entries or other pairs that share a letter shape.
- Full dictionary entry for "head" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
- Full dictionary entry for "heath" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
- This pair ranks #491,956 of 530,003 scored English confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
- "head" and "heath" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "heath 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 #491,956 of 530,003 scored English pairs, corpus vintage 2026-09-03, not spelling advice.