Which to use
“headed” is an adjective and “heated” is a verb - they look or sound alike but fill different roles in a sentence.
- #2,736
- “headed” frequency rank
- #6,146
- “heated” frequency rank
- 8882
- confusion score
Side-by-Side Comparison
| Feature | headed | heated |
|---|---|---|
| Definition | Of a sheet of paper: having the sender's name, address, etc. preprinted at the top. | simple past and past participle of heat |
Where the eye mixes headed and heated
Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 5 letters in sequence.
Visual trap between headed and heated
These two trip readers on the page rather than in the ear: headed is /ˈhɛdɪd/ while heated is /ˈhiːtɪd/. Spoken aloud the problem disappears. In writing it persists, because they differ by a single letter - d in “headed” becomes t in “heated”, and the parts of speech differ too (adjective vs verb), which is usually the fastest check. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 8882, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.
headed is recorded at frequency rank #2,736, classified as anadj, pronounced /ˈhɛdɪd/. heated is at rank #6,146, tagged as averb, pronounced /ˈhiːtɪd/.
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 8882, this pair ranks #500,224 of 530,003 scored English confusable pairs - a relatively easy-to-tell-apart pair.
Orthographic DNA of headed vs heated
Shared letters: adeh. Private to "headed": -. Private to "heated": t.
"headed" · 6 letters · shape CVVCVC · "heated" · 6 letters · shape CVVCVC
Known mistypes of this pair
Frequently Asked Questions
Is swapping "headed" for "heated" ever safe?
Frequency check: "headed" vs "heated" - which ranks higher?
What to do next
Visual near-miss handled. Browse the word pages or a neighbour when the next look-alike shows up.
- Full dictionary entry for "headed" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
- Full dictionary entry for "heated" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
- This pair ranks #500,224 of 530,003 scored English confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
- "headed" and "heated" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "heated vs hedged". 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 #500,224 of 530,003 scored English pairs, corpus vintage 2026-09-03, not spelling advice.