headsvshedTell them apart

Quick tell: heads is a intj, hed is a noun, so they fill different roles in a sentence.

Which to use

“heads” is an intj and “hed” is a noun - they look or sound alike but fill different roles in a sentence.

#2,159
“heads” frequency rank
#44,253
“hed” frequency rank
46412
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature heads hed
Definition A shouted warning that something is falling from above, mind your heads; heads-up. The headline of a news story.

Letter map: heads vs hed

Shared letters muted; letters that set heads and hed apart highlighted. Shared run: 3.

5 ch
heads
3 ch
hed

Grammar separator: heads vs hed

Our dataset has no pronunciation recorded for both members, so the reliable separator here is grammatical: heads is anintj and hedanoun. On the page they differ by 2 letter(s) in length. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 46412, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

heads is recorded at frequency rank #2,159, classified as anintj, pronounced /hɛdz/. hed is at rank #44,253, tagged as anoun.

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 46412, this pair ranks #211,981 of 530,003 scored English confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.

Orthographic DNA of heads vs hed

Shared letters: deh. Private to "heads": as. Private to "hed": -.

"heads" · 5 letters · shape CVVCC  ·  "hed" · 3 letters · shape CVC

Known mistypes of this pair

  • headsehads · haeds · headds · headss · heasd · hedas · hheads

Frequently Asked Questions

Can "heads" and "hed" be used interchangeably?
No - they are not even the same part of speech. "heads" is an intj and "hed" a noun, so a sentence built for one is usually ungrammatical with the other.
In ordinary English text, does "heads" or "hed" show up more?
"heads" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #2,159 in our English list, against #44,253 for "hed". That is a wide gap, so in ordinary text the rarer spelling is the one worth double-checking.

Useful next steps

Done with this confusable. These links stay specific to "heads" and "hed".

  • Full dictionary entry for "heads" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "hed" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #211,981 of 530,003 scored English confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "heads" and "hed" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "hed vs HRW". 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 #211,981 of 530,003 scored English pairs, corpus vintage 2026-09-03, not spelling advice.

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

Source: FrequencyWords open word-frequency list