Which to use
“hearse” and “heart” are a confusable English pair: similar on the page, but distinct in meaning, check the gloss before you choose.
- #37,023
- “hearse” frequency rank
- #491
- “heart” frequency rank
- 37514
- confusion score
Side-by-Side Comparison
| Feature | hearse | heart |
|---|---|---|
| Definition | 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. | A muscular organ that pumps blood through the body, traditionally thought to be the seat of emotion. |
Where the eye mixes hearse and heart
Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 4 letters in sequence. hearse runs 6 letters (CVVCCV) against heart's 5 (CVVCC) - the length gap alone is often enough to separate them once you know to check it.
Look-alike desk: hearse vs heart
A purely visual mix-up. hearse (/hɜːs/) and heart (/hɑːt/) are said differently, so reading them aloud is the quickest way to catch the wrong one. On the page they stay close: they differ by 1 letter(s) in length. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 37514, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.
hearse is recorded at frequency rank #37,023, classified as anoun, pronounced /hɜːs/. heart is at rank #491, tagged as anoun, pronounced /hɑːt/.
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 37514, this pair ranks #293,916 of 530,003 scored English confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.
Orthographic DNA of hearse vs heart
Shared letters: aehr. Private to "hearse": s. Private to "heart": t.
"hearse" · 6 letters · shape CVVCCV · "heart" · 5 letters · shape CVVCC
Known mistypes of this pair
Frequently Asked Questions
Do "hearse" and "heart" mean the same thing in a sentence?
In ordinary English text, does "hearse" or "heart" show up more?
After this comparison
Visual near-miss handled. Browse the word pages or a neighbour when the next look-alike shows up.
- Full dictionary entry for "hearse" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
- Full dictionary entry for "heart" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
- This pair ranks #293,916 of 530,003 scored English confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
- "hearse" and "heart" 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 #293,916 of 530,003 scored English pairs, corpus vintage 2026-09-03, not spelling advice.