Which to use
“hear” is a verb and “heart” is a noun - they look or sound alike but fill different roles in a sentence.
- #588
- “hear” frequency rank
- #491
- “heart” frequency rank
- 1079
- confusion score
Side-by-Side Comparison
| Feature | hear | heart |
|---|---|---|
| Definition | To perceive sounds through the ear. | A muscular organ that pumps blood through the body, traditionally thought to be the seat of emotion. |
Where the eye mixes hear and heart
Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 4 letters in sequence.
Spelling & Dictionary Insight
These two trip readers on the page rather than in the ear: hear is /ˈhɪə/ while heart is /hɑːt/. Spoken aloud the problem disappears. In writing it persists, because they differ by 1 extra letter(s) - “hear” sits inside “heart”, and the parts of speech differ too (verb vs noun), which is usually the fastest check. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 1079, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.
hear is recorded at frequency rank #588, classified as averb, pronounced /ˈhɪə/. heart is at rank #491, tagged as anoun, pronounced /hɑːt/.
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 1079, this pair ranks #528,149 of 530,003 scored English confusable pairs - a relatively easy-to-tell-apart pair.
Orthographic DNA of hear vs heart
Shared letters: aehr. Private to "hear": -. Private to "heart": t.
"hear" · 4 letters · shape CVVC · "heart" · 5 letters · shape CVVCC