Which to use
“heard” is a verb and “heavy” is an adjective - they look or sound alike but fill different roles in a sentence.
- #542
- “heard” frequency rank
- #1,170
- “heavy” frequency rank
- 1712
- confusion score
Side-by-Side Comparison
| Feature | heard | heavy |
|---|---|---|
| Definition | simple past and past participle of hear | Having great weight. |
Where the eye mixes heard and heavy
Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 3 letters in sequence.
Spelling & Dictionary Insight
These two trip readers on the page rather than in the ear: heard is /ˈhɜːd/ while heavy is /ˈhɛv.i/. 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 (verb vs adjective), which is usually the fastest check. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 1712, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.
heard is recorded at frequency rank #542, classified as averb, pronounced /ˈhɜːd/. heavy is at rank #1,170, tagged as anadj, pronounced /ˈhɛv.i/.
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 1712, this pair ranks #526,824 of 530,003 scored English confusable pairs - a relatively easy-to-tell-apart pair.
Orthographic DNA of heard vs heavy
Shared letters: aeh. Private to "heard": dr. Private to "heavy": vy.
"heard" · 5 letters · shape CVVCC · "heavy" · 5 letters · shape CVVCV