Which to use
“heady” is an adjective and “hearn” is a verb - they look or sound alike but fill different roles in a sentence.
- #31,593
- “heady” frequency rank
- #34,519
- “hearn” frequency rank
- 66112
- confusion score
Side-by-Side Comparison
| Feature | heady | hearn |
|---|---|---|
| Definition | Intoxicating or stupefying. | past participle of hear |
Where the eye mixes heady and hearn
Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 3 letters in sequence. heady (CVVCV) and hearn (CVVCC) run the same length but a different consonant-vowel pattern - the shape difference is usually the fastest tell.
Visual trap between heady and hearn
These two trip readers on the page rather than in the ear: heady is /ˈhɛdi/ while hearn is /ˈhɪən/. Spoken aloud the problem disappears. In writing it persists, because they share most of their letters but differ in 2 positions, and the parts of speech differ too (adjective vs verb), which is usually the fastest check. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 66112, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.
heady is recorded at frequency rank #31,593, classified as anadj, pronounced /ˈhɛdi/. 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 66112, this pair ranks #69,555 of 530,003 scored English confusable pairs - among the most confusable pairs.
Orthographic DNA of heady vs hearn
Shared letters: aeh. Private to "heady": dy. Private to "hearn": nr.
"heady" · 5 letters · shape CVVCV · "hearn" · 5 letters · shape CVVCC
Known mistypes of this pair
Frequently Asked Questions
Can "heady" and "hearn" be used interchangeably?
In ordinary English text, does "heady" or "hearn" show up more?
Useful next steps
Pronunciation already separates them, if the page still looks alike, the dictionary links below settle it.
- Full dictionary entry for "heady" 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 #69,555 of 530,003 scored English confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
- "heady" and "hearn" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "hearn vs Hoare". 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 #69,555 of 530,003 scored English pairs, corpus vintage 2026-09-03, not spelling advice.