heavevsheeWhich spelling fits?

Quick tell: heave is a verb, hee is an intj, so they fill different roles in a sentence.

Which to use

“heave” is a verb and “hee” is an intj - they look or sound alike but fill different roles in a sentence.

#32,841
“heave” frequency rank
#14,958
“hee” frequency rank
47799
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature heave hee
Definition To lift with difficulty; to raise with some effort; to lift (a heavy thing). An expression of laughter.

Letter map: heave vs hee

Shared letters muted; letters that set heave and hee apart highlighted. Shared run: 3.

5 ch
heave
3 ch
hee

Role in the sentence - heave and hee

Our dataset has no pronunciation recorded for both members, so the reliable separator here is grammatical: heave is averb and heeanintj. On the page they differ by 2 letter(s) in length. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 47799, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

heave is recorded at frequency rank #32,841, classified as averb, pronounced /hiːv/. hee is at rank #14,958, tagged as anintj.

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 47799, this pair ranks #199,103 of 530,003 scored English confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.

Orthographic DNA of heave vs hee

Shared letters: eh. Private to "heave": av. Private to "hee": -.

"heave" · 5 letters · shape CVVCV  ·  "hee" · 3 letters · shape CVV

Known mistypes of this pair

  • heaveehave · haeve · heaev · heavve · hevae · hheave

Frequently Asked Questions

Can "heave" and "hee" be used interchangeably?
No - they are not even the same part of speech. "heave" is a verb and "hee" an intj, so a sentence built for one is usually ungrammatical with the other.
Which is more common, "heave" or "hee"?
"hee" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #14,958 in our English list, against #32,841 for "heave". The two are close in frequency, so neither is a safe default; check the meaning rather than guessing.

After this comparison

Done with this confusable. These links stay specific to "heave" and "hee".

  • Full dictionary entry for "heave" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "hee" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #199,103 of 530,003 scored English confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "heave" and "hee" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "heave 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 #199,103 of 530,003 scored English pairs, corpus vintage 2026-09-03, not spelling advice.

Source: Wiktionary (via kaikki.org) Structured Wiktionary extract

Source: FrequencyWords open word-frequency list