Which to use
“hearse” is a noun and “hearted” is a verb - they look or sound alike but fill different roles in a sentence.
- #37,023
- “hearse” frequency rank
- #10,059
- “hearted” frequency rank
- 47082
- confusion score
Side-by-Side Comparison
| Feature | hearse | hearted |
|---|---|---|
| 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. | simple past and past participle of heart |
Where the eye mixes hearse and hearted
Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 5 letters in sequence.
Visual trap between hearse and hearted
These two trip readers on the page rather than in the ear: hearse is /hɜːs/ while hearted is /ˈhɑːtɪd/. 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 (noun vs verb), which is usually the fastest check. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 47082, 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/. hearted is at rank #10,059, tagged as averb, pronounced /ˈhɑːtɪd/.
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 47082, this pair ranks #205,730 of 530,003 scored English confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.
Orthographic DNA of hearse vs hearted
Shared letters: aehr. Private to "hearse": s. Private to "hearted": dt.
"hearse" · 6 letters · shape CVVCCV · "hearted" · 7 letters · shape CVVCCVC
Known mistypes of this pair
Frequently Asked Questions
Can "hearse" and "hearted" be used interchangeably?
Frequency check: "hearse" vs "hearted" - which ranks higher?
Useful next steps
Eye-level mix-up between "hearse" and "hearted" is sorted above. Next: full entries or other pairs that share a letter shape.
- Full dictionary entry for "hearse" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
- Full dictionary entry for "hearted" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
- This pair ranks #205,730 of 530,003 scored English confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
- "hearse" and "hearted" 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 #205,730 of 530,003 scored English pairs, corpus vintage 2026-09-03, not spelling advice.