Which to use
“hed” is a noun and “his” is a determiner - they look or sound alike but fill different roles in a sentence.
- #44,253
- “hed” frequency rank
- #34
- “his” frequency rank
- 44287
- confusion score
Side-by-Side Comparison
| Feature | hed | his |
|---|---|---|
| Definition | The headline of a news story. | Belonging to him. |
Letter map: hed vs his
Shared letters muted; letters that set hed and his apart highlighted. Shared run: 1.
Role in the sentence - hed and his
Our dataset has no pronunciation recorded for both members, so the reliable separator here is grammatical: hed is anoun and hisadeterminer. On the page they share most of their letters but differ in 2 positions. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 44287, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.
hed is recorded at frequency rank #44,253, classified as anoun. his is at rank #34, tagged as adet, pronounced /ɪ̈z/.
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 44287, this pair ranks #232,024 of 530,003 scored English confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.
Orthographic DNA of hed vs his
Shared letters: h. Private to "hed": de. Private to "his": is.
"hed" · 3 letters · shape CVC · "his" · 3 letters · shape CVC
Frequently Asked Questions
Can "hed" and "his" be used interchangeably?
Which is more common, "hed" or "his"?
What to do next
You've compared "hed" and "his". Here's where to go from here.
- Full dictionary entry for "hed" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
- Full dictionary entry for "his" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
- This pair ranks #232,024 of 530,003 scored English confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
- "hed" and "his" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "hed vs HRW". Nearby pair
Confusion rank #232,024 of 530,003 scored English pairs, corpus vintage 2026-09-03, not spelling advice.