Which to use
“hears” is a verb and “hearse” is a noun - they look or sound alike but fill different roles in a sentence.
- #9,903
- “hears” frequency rank
- #37,023
- “hearse” frequency rank
- 46926
- confusion score
Side-by-Side Comparison
| Feature | hears | hearse |
|---|---|---|
| Definition | third-person singular simple present indicative 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 hears and hearse
Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 5 letters in sequence.
Visual trap between hears and hearse
These two trip readers on the page rather than in the ear: hears is /hɪə(ɹ)z/ while hearse is /hɜːs/. Spoken aloud the problem disappears. In writing it persists, because they differ by 1 extra letter(s) - “hears” sits inside “hearse”, and the parts of speech differ too (verb vs noun), which is usually the fastest check. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 46926, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.
hears is recorded at frequency rank #9,903, classified as averb, pronounced /hɪə(ɹ)z/. 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 46926, this pair ranks #207,202 of 530,003 scored English confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.
Orthographic DNA of hears vs hearse
Shared letters: aehrs. Private to "hears": -. Private to "hearse": -.
"hears" · 5 letters · shape CVVCC · "hearse" · 6 letters · shape CVVCCV
Known mistypes of this pair
Frequently Asked Questions
Do "hears" and "hearse" mean the same thing in a sentence?
In ordinary English text, does "hears" or "hearse" show up more?
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 "hears" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
- Full dictionary entry for "hearse" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
- This pair ranks #207,202 of 530,003 scored English confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
- "hears" and "hearse" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "hearse 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 #207,202 of 530,003 scored English pairs, corpus vintage 2026-09-03, not spelling advice.