Which to use
“hears” is a verb and “hearth” is a noun - they look or sound alike but fill different roles in a sentence.
- #9,903
- “hears” frequency rank
- #25,404
- “hearth” frequency rank
- 35307
- confusion score
Side-by-Side Comparison
| Feature | hears | hearth |
|---|---|---|
| Definition | third-person singular simple present indicative of hear | The place in a home where a fire is or was traditionally kept for home heating and for cooking, usually constituted by at least a hearthstone and often enclosed to varying degrees by any combination of reredos, fireplace, oven, smoke hood, or chimney. |
Where the eye mixes hears and hearth
Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 4 letters in sequence.
Why the eye confuses hears with hearth
These two trip readers on the page rather than in the ear: hears is /hɪə(ɹ)z/ while hearth is /hɑːθ/. 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 35307, 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/. hearth is at rank #25,404, tagged as anoun, pronounced /hɑːθ/.
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 35307, this pair ranks #313,089 of 530,003 scored English confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.
Orthographic DNA of hears vs hearth
Shared letters: aehr. Private to "hears": s. Private to "hearth": t.
"hears" · 5 letters · shape CVVCC · "hearth" · 6 letters · shape CVVCCC
Known mistypes of this pair
Frequently Asked Questions
Can "hears" and "hearth" be used interchangeably?
In ordinary English text, does "hears" or "hearth" 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 "hears" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
- Full dictionary entry for "hearth" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
- This pair ranks #313,089 of 530,003 scored English confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
- "hears" and "hearth" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "hearse vs hearth". 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 #313,089 of 530,003 scored English pairs, corpus vintage 2026-09-03, not spelling advice.