Which to use
“hed” is a noun and “held” is a verb - they look or sound alike but fill different roles in a sentence.
- #44,253
- “hed” frequency rank
- #572
- “held” frequency rank
- 44825
- confusion score
Side-by-Side Comparison
| Feature | hed | held |
|---|---|---|
| Definition | The headline of a news story. | simple past and past participle of hold |
Letter map: hed vs held
Shared letters muted; letters that set hed and held apart highlighted. Shared run: 3.
Spelling & Dictionary Insight
Our dataset has no pronunciation recorded for both members, so the reliable separator here is grammatical: hed is anoun and heldaverb. On the page they differ by 1 letter(s) in length. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 44825, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.
hed is recorded at frequency rank #44,253, classified as anoun. held is at rank #572, tagged as averb, pronounced /ˈhɛld/.
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 44825, this pair ranks #226,965 of 530,003 scored English confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.
Orthographic DNA of hed vs held
Shared letters: deh. Private to "hed": -. Private to "held": l.
"hed" · 3 letters · shape CVC · "held" · 4 letters · shape CVCC
Known mistypes of this pair
- held ← ehld · hedl · heldd · helld · hheld · hled