Which to use
“heard” is a verb and “hearse” is a noun - they look or sound alike but fill different roles in a sentence.
- #542
- “heard” frequency rank
- #37,023
- “hearse” frequency rank
- 37565
- confusion score
Side-by-Side Comparison
| Feature | heard | hearse |
|---|---|---|
| Definition | simple past and past participle of hear | A framework of wood or metal placed over the coffin or tomb of a deceased person, and covered with a pall; also, a temporary canopy bearing wax lights and set up in a church, under which the coffin was placed during the funeral ceremonies. |
Where the eye mixes heard and hearse
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: heard is /ˈhɜːd/ while hearse is /hɜːs/. Spoken aloud the problem disappears. In writing it persists, because they differ by 1 letter(s) in length, and the parts of speech differ too (verb vs noun), which is usually the fastest check. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 37565, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.
heard is recorded at frequency rank #542, classified as averb, pronounced /ˈhɜːd/. hearse is at rank #37,023, tagged as anoun, pronounced /hɜːs/.
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 37565, this pair ranks #293,480 of 530,003 scored English confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.
Orthographic DNA of heard vs hearse
Shared letters: aehr. Private to "heard": d. Private to "hearse": s.
"heard" · 5 letters · shape CVVCC · "hearse" · 6 letters · shape CVVCCV