headvshecWhat's the difference?

Quick tell: head is a adjective, hec is a noun, so they fill different roles in a sentence.

Which to use

“head” is an adjective and “hec” is a noun - they look or sound alike but fill different roles in a sentence.

#18,215
“head” frequency rank
#16,639
“hec” frequency rank
34854
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature head hec
Definition Relatif à la tête. Planche qu'on pose sur la vendange avant de la soumettre à l'action du pressoir.

Letter map: head vs hec

Shared letters muted; letters that set head and hec apart highlighted. Shared run: 2.

4 ch
head
3 ch
hec

Role in the sentence - head and hec

Our dataset has no pronunciation recorded for both members, so the reliable separator here is grammatical: head is anadjective and hecanoun. On the page they differ by 1 letter(s) in length. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 34854, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

head is recorded at frequency rank #18,215, classified as anadj, pronounced \hɛd\. hec is at rank #16,639, tagged as anoun.

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 34854, this pair ranks #280,891 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.

Orthographic DNA of head vs hec

Shared letters: eh. Private to "head": ad. Private to "hec": c.

"head" · 4 letters · shape CVVC  ·  "hec" · 3 letters · shape CVC

Known mistypes of this pair

  • headehad · haed · headd · heda · hhead

Frequently Asked Questions

Do "head" and "hec" mean the same thing in a sentence?
No - they are not even the same part of speech. "head" is an adjective and "hec" a noun, so a sentence built for one is usually ungrammatical with the other.
Which is more common, "head" or "hec"?
"hec" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #16,639 in our French list, against #18,215 for "head". The two are close in frequency, so neither is a safe default; check the meaning rather than guessing.

After this comparison

You've compared "head" and "hec". Here's where to go from here.

  • Full dictionary entry for "head" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "hec" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #280,891 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "head" and "hec" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "hae vs head". 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 #280,891 of 440,172 scored French pairs, corpus vintage 2026-09-03, not spelling advice.

Source: Wiktionary (via kaikki.org) Structured Wiktionary extract

Source: FrequencyWords open word-frequency list