heel
/hiːl/
"heel" is a 4-letter English headword indexed on PlainSpell.
The verdict
“heel” is a regularly-used English word, ranked #9,052 in English word frequency and used as a noun.
- #9,052
- frequency rank, English
- 4
- letters
- 4
- tracked misspellings
- 20
- confusable pairs
According to Wiktionary data (CC BY-SA, analyzed May 6, 2026) - The rear part of the foot, where it joins the leg.
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 | heel |
| Language | English |
| Part of speech | Noun |
| IPA | /hiːl/ |
| Letters | 4 |
| Frequency rank | #9,052 |
| Misspellings tracked | 4 |
| Confusable pairs | 20 |
| Source | Wiktionary (kaikki.org) |
Where “heel” sits in English frequency
Spelling & Dictionary Insight
The English entry for heel is 4 letters long, classified as a noun, and transcribed in the International Phonetic Alphabet as /hiːl/. Corpus data places it at rank #9,052 in overall English word frequency, indicating it appears regularly in written and spoken text. Wiktionary records 23 distinct senses for this headword, so context determines which meaning a reader should apply.
Our generated misspelling index lists 4 likely wrong-spelling variants for heel, with forms such as "ehel", "heell", and "hele". Each variant is a distinct typo pattern an edit-distance generator flags, typically a doubled-consonant error, a silent-letter drop, or a vowel substitution. It also participates in 20 confusable-pair relationships, "her", "hey", "hes", and more, a pairing that trips writers up because the two words share enough sound or shape to blur together.
Etymologically, the entry records: From Middle English hele, from Old English hēla, from Proto-West Germanic *hą̄hilō, from Proto-Germanic *hanhilaz, diminutive of Proto-Germanic *hanhaz (“heel, hock”), equivalent to hock + -le. More at hock. Compare North Frisian haiel, West Frisian hyl, Du… The correct English form is heel, spelled H-E-E-L.
Definition
- 1The rear part of the foot, where it joins the leg.
- 2The part of a shoe's sole which supports the foot's heel.
- 3The rear part of a sock or similar covering for the foot.
- 4The part of the palm of a hand closest to the wrist.
- 5A high-heeled shoe.
- 6The back, upper part of the stock.
- 7The thickening of the neck of a stringed instrument where it attaches to the body.
- 8The last or lowest part of anything.
- 9A crust end-piece of a loaf of bread.
- 10The base of a bun sliced in half lengthwise.
- 11A contemptible, unscrupulous, inconsiderate, or thoughtless person.
- 12A headlining wrestler regarded as a "bad guy," whose ring persona embodies villainous or reprehensible traits and demonstrates characteristics of a braggart and a bully.
- 13The cards set aside for later use in a patience or solitaire game.
- 14Anything resembling a human heel in shape; a protuberance; a knob.
- 15The lower end of a timber in a frame, as a post or rafter.
- 16The obtuse angle of the lower end of a rafter set sloping.
- 17A cyma reversa.
- 18The short side of an angled cut.
- 19The part of a club head's face nearest the shaft.
- 20The lower end of the bit (cutting edge) of an axehead, as opposed to the toe (upper end).
- 21The part of a carding machine's flat nearest the cylinder.
- 22The junction between the keel and the stempost of a vessel; an angular wooden join connecting the two.
- 23Material stored in a smelting furnace between batches
Etymology
From Middle English hele, from Old English hēla, from Proto-West Germanic *hą̄hilō, from Proto-Germanic *hanhilaz, diminutive of Proto-Germanic *hanhaz (“heel, hock”), equivalent to hock + -le. More at hock. Compare North Frisian haiel, West Frisian hyl, Dutch hiel, German Low German Hiel, Danish and Norwegian hæl, Swedish häl.
This word in other languages
Common misspellings
Also misspelled as: ehel,heell,hele,hheel
Misspelling Pattern Breakdown
How far each generated variant is from the correct spelling of heel - measured in single-character edits (insert, delete, or substitute a letter). Larger bars are easier to catch; one-edit slips are the sneakiest.
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.
Frequently Asked Questions
How do you spell "heel"?
What does "heel" mean?
What words are commonly confused with "heel"?
How do you pronounce "heel"?
What is the origin of the word "heel"?
Is PlainSpell free to use?
Using “heel”
The practical upshot for anyone who landed here from a spell-check.
- The one correct English spelling is H-E-E-L - every other letter order is a misspelling in standard orthography.
- Say it as /hiːl/ (IPA); tap the speaker on the pronunciation badge to hear it where audio exists.
- Don't mix it up with “her” - see the side-by-side comparison. heel vs her
- Browse more English words and confusable pairs in the same reference. English words
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.