heil vs hells, What's the Difference?

Which to use

“heil” is a verb and “hells” is a noun - they look or sound alike but fill different roles in a sentence.

#38,882
“heil” frequency rank: #26,457
“hells” frequency rank: 65339
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature	heil	hells
Definition	To greet with a Sieg Heil.	plural of hell

Where the spellings diverge

Shared letters are muted; the letters that actually set heil and hells apart are highlighted. They share 3 letters in sequence, which is exactly why the eye skips the difference.

4 ch

heil

5 ch

hells

Spelling & Dictionary Insight

These two trip readers on the page rather than in the ear: heil is /haɪl/ while hells is /hɛlz/. Spoken aloud the problem disappears. In writing it persists, because they differ by 1 letter(s) in length, and the parts of speech differ too (verb vs noun), which is usually the fastest check. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 65339, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

heil is recorded at frequency rank #38,882, classified as averb, pronounced /haɪl/. hells is at rank #26,457, tagged as anoun, pronounced /hɛlz/.

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 65339, this pair ranks #73,255 of 530,003 scored English confusable pairs - among the most confusable pairs.

Orthographic DNA of heil vs hells

Shared letters: ehl. Private to "heil": i. Private to "hells": s.

"heil" · 4 letters · shape CVVC · "hells" · 5 letters · shape CVCCC

Known mistypes of this pair

heil ← ehil · heill · hheil · hiel
hells ← ehlls · hellss · helsl · hhells · hlels

Frequency comparison

heil#38,882

hells#26,457

Source: FrequencyWords open word-frequency list

Frequently Asked Questions

Can "heil" and "hells" be used interchangeably?

No - they are not even the same part of speech. "heil" is a verb and "hells" a noun, so a sentence built for one is usually ungrammatical with the other.

Which is more common, "heil" or "hells"?

"hells" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #26,457 in our English list, against #38,882 for "heil". The two are close in frequency, so neither is a safe default; check the meaning rather than guessing.

Remembering heil vs hells

The fastest way to pick the right one every time.

Check the role first: if you need a verb, it's “heil”; for a noun, it's “hells”.
See each word in full, definition, IPA, etymology and its other confusables. Full “heil” entry
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