heart
/hɑːt/
"heart" is a 5-letter English headword indexed on PlainSpell.
The verdict
“heart” has 6 generated spelling variants in the English index at frequency #491. The variants make it a useful spelling check.
- #491
- frequency rank, English
- 2,646
- “H” headwords
- 6
- tracked misspellings
- 20
- confusable pairs
According to Wiktionary data (CC BY-SA, analyzed September 3, 2026) - A muscular organ that pumps blood through the body, traditionally thought to be the seat of emotion.
Corpus desk
Index EN-heart · heart · English
heart · rank #491 · 6 variants · 20 confusables
- FREQ-CORE #491
- LEN-MID 5 letters
- VOW-2 2 vowels
- CONFUS-HIGH 20 pairs
- VAR-MID 6 variants
- BOOK-MID 2,646
- PHOTO-FINISH further
Nearest frequency peer: further (-1 rank slots)
Read with this headword: Spelling guide for this pattern
Desk codes from Wiktionary headword shape, FrequencyWords rank tier, confusable-pair count, generated misspelling depth, letter-cohort book size, and photo-finish peer. Not a difficulty grade.
Frequency neighbourhood for “heart”
Lower corpus rank = more everyday usage (inverted bar length for readability)
- development
development
99,513 corpus weight
- form
form
99,512 corpus weight
- further
further
99,511 corpus weight
- heart
heart
99,510 corpus weight
- minutes
minutes
99,509 corpus weight
- myself
myself
99,508 corpus weight
What this shows Bars show where “heart” sits against the nearest ranked English headwords in the FrequencyWords band, not a reprint of letter-browse containment.
Visual similarity to commonly confused words
How many letter changes separate each confused pair (Levenshtein distance, normalized).
Source: PlainSpell confusable corpus (Wiktionary, CC BY-SA).
| Property | Value |
|---|---|
| Headword | heart |
| Language | English |
| Part of speech | Noun |
| IPA | /hɑːt/ |
| Letters | 5 |
| Frequency rank | #491 |
| Misspellings tracked | 6 |
| Confusable pairs | 20 |
| Source | Wiktionary (kaikki.org) |
Where “heart” sits in English frequency
A misspelling magnet
The generator records 6 spelling variants around heart (IPA /hɑːt/), anoun. Corpus frequency is #491 among 2,646 “H” headwords. Wiktionary lists 13 senses, so context still picks the gloss.
Our generated misspelling index lists 6 likely wrong-spelling variants for heart, with forms such as "ehart", "haert", and "hearrt". Each of these forms differs from the correct spelling by one small edit: a doubled letter, a dropped silent letter, or a substituted vowel. It also participates in 20 confusable-pair relationships, "her", "het", "HRT", and more, since the words sound or look close enough that writers reach for the wrong one mid-sentence.
Etymologically, the entry records: PIE word *ḱḗr From Middle English herte, from Old English heorte (“heart”), from Proto-West Germanic *hertā, from Proto-Germanic *hertô (“heart”), from Proto-Indo-European *ḱérd (“heart”). Doublet of cardia; see also core. Most of the modern figurative sen… The correct English form is heart, spelled H-E-A-R-T.
Definition
- 1A muscular organ that pumps blood through the body, traditionally thought to be the seat of emotion.
- 2One's feelings and emotions, especially considered as part of one's character.
- 3The seat of the affections or sensibilities, collectively or separately, as love, hate, joy, grief, courage, etc.; rarely, the seat of the understanding or will; usually in a good sense; personality.
- 4Emotional strength that allows one to continue in difficult situations; courage; spirit; a will to compete.
- 5Vigorous and efficient activity; power of fertile production; condition of the soil, whether good or bad.
- 6A term of affectionate or kindly and familiar address.
- 7Memory.
- 8A wight or being.
- 9A conventional shape or symbol used to represent the heart, love, or emotion: ♥.
- 10A playing card of the suit hearts featuring one or more heart-shaped symbols.
- 11The twenty-fourth Lenormand card.
- 12The centre, essence, or core.
- 13The centre, essence, or core.
Recorded use
Wiktionary examplesThese source excerpts show how heart appears in context. They illustrate usage; the definition above remains the entry’s reference meaning.
[…] I did almoſt beleeve, that the motion of the Heart vvas knovvn to God alone: […]
She has a cold heart.
Etymology
PIE word *ḱḗr From Middle English herte, from Old English heorte (“heart”), from Proto-West Germanic *hertā, from Proto-Germanic *hertô (“heart”), from Proto-Indo-European *ḱérd (“heart”). Doublet of cardia; see also core. Most of the modern figurative senses (such as passion or compassion, spirit, inmost feelings, especially love, affection, and courage) were present in Old English. However, the meaning “center” dates from the early 14th century. The verb sense “to love” is from the 1977 I ❤ NY advertising campaign. Notes on spelling The spelling ⟨ear⟩ for /ɑː(ɹ)/ is paralleled by hearken and hearth, but is problematics since a Early Modern variant with /ɛːr/ can be posited for those words, but not heart. Perhaps it represents Middle Scots hart /hɛːrt/ (reflecting the Scots lengthening of /a/ before /r/ then a consonant, then the early actuation of the Great Vowel Shift in Scots) or a parallel development in Northern England. Alternatively, a back-spelling by speakers of dialects where preconsonantal /ɛːr/ was shortened early, allowing it to undergo the late Middle English lowering to /ar/ (reflected in forms such as larn "learn") is possible.
This word in other languages
Common misspellings
Also misspelled as:
- ehart
- haert
- hearrt
- heartt
- heatr
- hheart
Misspelling Pattern Breakdown
How far each generated variant is from the correct spelling of heart - expressed in single-character edits (insert, delete, or swap one letter). Bigger bars stand out at a glance; a one-edit slip is the hardest to catch.
Definitions, pronunciation, and etymology for this entry are drawn from Wiktionary via the kaikki.org structured extract (CC BY-SA); frequency ordering uses the FrequencyWords open word-frequency list (2018 English corpus, MIT). See the methodology for how each field is sourced and updated.
PlainSpell is rendered directly from structured Wiktionary extracts and open word-frequency lists, no number is typed in by an editor. See our editorial standards & corrections policy, the methodology behind these numbers, or report a data error. Data current as of September 3, 2026. Primary sources: Wiktionary (via kaikki.org) and FrequencyWords.
Frequently Asked Questions
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Similar English words by spelling shape
Same letter count and similar misspelling depth for "heart", not the corpus desk frequency band.
Same letter count
Frequency-ranked English headwords with 5 letters (nearest by frequency rank).
Similar misspelling depth
Headwords with a similar count of attested misspellings (6 here; floor ≥5).
What to do next
You've looked up "heart". Here's where to go from here.
- "heart" maps to 20 confusable pairs in this vintage; the highest-scored is "her". View pair
- 6 edit-distance misspelling variants are generated for spell-check research on this headword. See variants
- Usage frequency rank #491 among English headwords in this corpus. Corpus statistics
- Browse more English words in the "H" letter cohort. H–Z browse
- PlainSpell rotates a curated Word of the Day from the English corpus, a passive way to discover vocabulary. Word of the Day
PlainSpell is a reference corpus, not spelling advice. Verify unusual forms in context.
Data Source
Wiktionary (via kaikki.org), licensed under CC BY-SA & GFDL. Word ordering uses an open word-frequency list; misspelling variants are generated by edit-distance from the correct headword.