Which to use
“healed” and “heard” are a confusable English pair: similar on the page, but distinct in meaning, check the gloss before you choose.
- #11,896
- “healed” frequency rank
- #542
- “heard” frequency rank
- 12438
- confusion score
Side-by-Side Comparison
| Feature | healed | heard |
|---|---|---|
| Definition | simple past and past participle of heal | simple past and past participle of hear |
Where the eye mixes healed and heard
Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 4 letters in sequence.
Why the eye confuses healed with heard
A purely visual mix-up. healed (/hiːld/) and heard (/ˈhɜːd/) 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 12438, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.
healed is recorded at frequency rank #11,896, classified as averb, pronounced /hiːld/. heard is at rank #542, tagged as averb, pronounced /ˈhɜːd/.
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 12438, this pair ranks #481,573 of 530,003 scored English confusable pairs - a relatively easy-to-tell-apart pair.
Orthographic DNA of healed vs heard
Shared letters: adeh. Private to "healed": l. Private to "heard": r.
"healed" · 6 letters · shape CVVCVC · "heard" · 5 letters · shape CVVCC
Known mistypes of this pair
Frequently Asked Questions
Do "healed" and "heard" mean the same thing in a sentence?
Which is more common, "healed" or "heard"?
Useful next steps
Pronunciation already separates them, if the page still looks alike, the dictionary links below settle it.
- Full dictionary entry for "healed" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
- Full dictionary entry for "heard" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
- This pair ranks #481,573 of 530,003 scored English confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
- "healed" and "heard" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "healed 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 #481,573 of 530,003 scored English pairs, corpus vintage 2026-09-03, not spelling advice.