Which to use
“heel” and “hen” are a confusable English pair: similar on the page, but distinct in meaning, check the gloss before you choose.
- #9,052
- “heel” frequency rank
- #13,733
- “hen” frequency rank
- 22785
- confusion score
Side-by-Side Comparison
| Feature | heel | hen |
|---|---|---|
| Definition | The rear part of the foot, where it joins the leg. | A female chicken (Gallus gallus), especially a sexually mature one kept for her eggs. |
Where the eye mixes heel and hen
Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 2 letters in sequence.
Why the eye confuses heel with hen
A purely visual mix-up. heel (/hiːl/) and hen (/hɛn/) are said differently, so reading them aloud is the quickest way to catch the wrong one. On the page they stay close: they differ by 1 letter(s) in length. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 22785, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.
heel is recorded at frequency rank #9,052, classified as anoun, pronounced /hiːl/. hen is at rank #13,733, tagged as anoun, pronounced /hɛn/.
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 22785, this pair ranks #414,033 of 530,003 scored English confusable pairs - a relatively easy-to-tell-apart pair.
Orthographic DNA of heel vs hen
Shared letters: eh. Private to "heel": l. Private to "hen": n.
"heel" · 4 letters · shape CVVC · "hen" · 3 letters · shape CVC
Known mistypes of this pair
- heel ← ehel · heell · hele · hheel
Frequently Asked Questions
Can "heel" and "hen" be used interchangeably?
In ordinary English text, does "heel" or "hen" show up more?
What to do next
Eye-level mix-up between "heel" and "hen" is sorted above. Next: full entries or other pairs that share a letter shape.
- Full dictionary entry for "heel" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
- Full dictionary entry for "hen" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
- This pair ranks #414,033 of 530,003 scored English confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
- "heel" and "hen" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "hen vs HRW". 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 #414,033 of 530,003 scored English pairs, corpus vintage 2026-09-03, not spelling advice.