Which to use
“hearn” is a verb and “heavy” is an adjective - they look or sound alike but fill different roles in a sentence.
- #34,519
- “hearn” frequency rank
- #1,170
- “heavy” frequency rank
- 35689
- confusion score
Side-by-Side Comparison
| Feature | hearn | heavy |
|---|---|---|
| Definition | past participle of hear | Having great weight. |
Where the eye mixes hearn and heavy
Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 3 letters in sequence. hearn (CVVCC) and heavy (CVVCV) run the same length but a different consonant-vowel pattern - the shape difference is usually the fastest tell.
Look-alike desk: hearn vs heavy
These two trip readers on the page rather than in the ear: hearn is /ˈhɪən/ 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 35689, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.
hearn is recorded at frequency rank #34,519, classified as averb, pronounced /ˈhɪən/. 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 35689, this pair ranks #309,772 of 530,003 scored English confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.
Orthographic DNA of hearn vs heavy
Shared letters: aeh. Private to "hearn": nr. Private to "heavy": vy.
"hearn" · 5 letters · shape CVVCC · "heavy" · 5 letters · shape CVVCV
Known mistypes of this pair
Frequently Asked Questions
Can "hearn" and "heavy" be used interchangeably?
In ordinary English text, does "hearn" or "heavy" show up more?
What to do next
Pronunciation already separates them, if the page still looks alike, the dictionary links below settle it.
- Full dictionary entry for "hearn" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
- Full dictionary entry for "heavy" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
- This pair ranks #309,772 of 530,003 scored English confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
- "hearn" and "heavy" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "hearn vs Hoare". 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 #309,772 of 530,003 scored English pairs, corpus vintage 2026-09-03, not spelling advice.