healedvsheartedWhich spelling fits?

Which to use

“healed” and “hearted” are a confusable English pair: similar on the page, but distinct in meaning, check the gloss before you choose.

#11,896
“healed” frequency rank
#10,059
“hearted” frequency rank
21955
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature healed hearted
Definition simple past and past participle of heal simple past and past participle of heart

Where the eye mixes healed and hearted

Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 5 letters in sequence.

6 ch
healed
7 ch
hearted

Why the eye confuses healed with hearted

A purely visual mix-up. healed (/hiːld/) and hearted (/ˈhɑːtɪd/) 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 21955, 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/. hearted is at rank #10,059, tagged as averb, pronounced /ˈhɑːtɪd/.

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 21955, this pair ranks #420,134 of 530,003 scored English confusable pairs - a relatively easy-to-tell-apart pair.

Orthographic DNA of healed vs hearted

Shared letters: adeh. Private to "healed": l. Private to "hearted": rt.

"healed" · 6 letters · shape CVVCVC  ·  "hearted" · 7 letters · shape CVVCCVC

Known mistypes of this pair

  • healedehaled · haeled · heaeld · healde · healedd · healled · helaed · hhealed
  • heartedeharted · haerted · hearetd · hearrted · heartde · heartedd · heartted · heatred

Frequently Asked Questions

Can "healed" and "hearted" be used interchangeably?
No. They are said differently (/hiːld/ versus /ˈhɑːtɪd/) and carry different meanings; reading the sentence aloud is usually enough to catch the wrong one.
In ordinary English text, does "healed" or "hearted" show up more?
"hearted" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #10,059 in our English list, against #11,896 for "healed". The two are close in frequency, so neither is a safe default; check the meaning rather than guessing.

Useful next steps

Visual near-miss handled. Browse the word pages or a neighbour when the next look-alike shows up.

  • Full dictionary entry for "healed" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "hearted" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #420,134 of 530,003 scored English confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "healed" and "hearted" 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 #420,134 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