Which to use
“hedged” and “heeled” are a confusable English pair: similar on the page, but distinct in meaning, check the gloss before you choose.
- #49,386
- “hedged” frequency rank
- #33,270
- “heeled” frequency rank
- 82656
- confusion score
Side-by-Side Comparison
| Feature | hedged | heeled |
|---|---|---|
| Definition | simple past and past participle of hedge | simple past and past participle of heel |
Where the eye mixes hedged and heeled
Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 4 letters in sequence. hedged (CVCCVC) and heeled (CVVCVC) run the same length but a different consonant-vowel pattern - the shape difference is usually the fastest tell.
Why the eye confuses hedged with heeled
A purely visual mix-up. hedged (/hɛd͡ʒd/) and heeled (/hiːld/) 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 82656, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.
hedged is recorded at frequency rank #49,386, classified as averb, pronounced /hɛd͡ʒd/. heeled is at rank #33,270, tagged as averb, pronounced /hiːld/.
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 82656, this pair ranks #15,323 of 530,003 scored English confusable pairs - among the most confusable pairs.
Orthographic DNA of hedged vs heeled
Shared letters: deh. Private to "hedged": g. Private to "heeled": l.
"hedged" · 6 letters · shape CVCCVC · "heeled" · 6 letters · shape CVVCVC
Known mistypes of this pair
Frequently Asked Questions
Is swapping "hedged" for "heeled" ever safe?
In ordinary English text, does "hedged" or "heeled" show up more?
Useful next steps
Eye-level mix-up between "hedged" and "heeled" is sorted above. Next: full entries or other pairs that share a letter shape.
- Full dictionary entry for "hedged" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
- Full dictionary entry for "heeled" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
- This pair ranks #15,323 of 530,003 scored English confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
- "hedged" and "heeled" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "hedged vs heeded". 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 #15,323 of 530,003 scored English pairs, corpus vintage 2026-09-03, not spelling advice.