Which to use
“hearse” and “hearth” are a confusable English pair: similar on the page, but distinct in meaning, check the gloss before you choose.
- #37,023
- “hearse” frequency rank
- #25,404
- “hearth” frequency rank
- 62427
- confusion score
Side-by-Side Comparison
| Feature | hearse | hearth |
|---|---|---|
| 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. | 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 hearse and hearth
Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 4 letters in sequence.
Visual trap between hearse and hearth
A purely visual mix-up. hearse (/hɜːs/) and hearth (/hɑːθ/) are said differently, so reading them aloud is the quickest way to catch the wrong one. On the page they stay close: they share most of their letters but differ in 2 positions. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 62427, 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/. 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 62427, this pair ranks #88,578 of 530,003 scored English confusable pairs - among the most confusable pairs.
Orthographic DNA of hearse vs hearth
Shared letters: aehr. Private to "hearse": s. Private to "hearth": t.
"hearse" · 6 letters · shape CVVCCV · "hearth" · 6 letters · shape CVVCCC
Known mistypes of this pair
Frequently Asked Questions
Can "hearse" and "hearth" be used interchangeably?
Which is more common, "hearse" or "hearth"?
What to do next
Pronunciation already separates them, if the page still looks alike, the dictionary links below settle it.
- Full dictionary entry for "hearse" 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 #88,578 of 530,003 scored English confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
- "hearse" and "hearth" 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 #88,578 of 530,003 scored English pairs, corpus vintage 2026-09-03, not spelling advice.