Which to use
“hearse” is a noun and “hearty” is an adjective - they look or sound alike but fill different roles in a sentence.
- #37,023
- “hearse” frequency rank
- #17,625
- “hearty” frequency rank
- 54648
- confusion score
Side-by-Side Comparison
| Feature | hearse | hearty |
|---|---|---|
| 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. | Warm and cordial towards another person. |
Where the eye mixes hearse and hearty
Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 4 letters in sequence.
Visual trap between hearse and hearty
These two trip readers on the page rather than in the ear: hearse is /hɜːs/ while hearty is /ˈhɑɹti/. Spoken aloud the problem disappears. In writing it persists, because they share most of their letters but differ in 2 positions, and the parts of speech differ too (noun vs adjective), which is usually the fastest check. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 54648, 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/. hearty is at rank #17,625, tagged as anadj, pronounced /ˈhɑɹti/.
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 54648, this pair ranks #139,475 of 530,003 scored English confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.
Orthographic DNA of hearse vs hearty
Shared letters: aehr. Private to "hearse": s. Private to "hearty": ty.
"hearse" · 6 letters · shape CVVCCV · "hearty" · 6 letters · shape CVVCCV
Known mistypes of this pair
Frequently Asked Questions
Is swapping "hearse" for "hearty" ever safe?
In ordinary English text, does "hearse" or "hearty" show up more?
After this comparison
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 "hearty" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
- This pair ranks #139,475 of 530,003 scored English confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
- "hearse" and "hearty" 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 #139,475 of 530,003 scored English pairs, corpus vintage 2026-09-03, not spelling advice.