Which to use
“head” is an adjective and “Herr” is a noun - they look or sound alike but fill different roles in a sentence.
- #18,215
- “head” frequency rank
- #32,434
- “Herr” frequency rank
- 50649
- confusion score
Side-by-Side Comparison
| Feature | head | Herr |
|---|---|---|
| Definition | Relatif à la tête. | Monsieur, appellation permettant de s’adresser de façon polie à un homme, normalement suivi par son nom de famille ou son titre. |
Where the eye mixes head and Herr
Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 2 letters in sequence.
Why the eye confuses head with Herr
These two trip readers on the page rather than in the ear: head is \hɛd\ while Herr is \hɛʁ\. Spoken aloud the problem disappears. In writing it persists, because they share most of their letters but differ in 2 positions, and the parts of speech differ too (adjective vs noun), which is usually the fastest check. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 50649, 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\. Herr is at rank #32,434, tagged as anoun, pronounced \hɛʁ\.
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 50649, this pair ranks #161,011 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.
Orthographic DNA of head vs Herr
Shared letters: eh. Private to "head": ad. Private to "Herr": r.
"head" · 4 letters · shape CVVC · "Herr" · 4 letters · shape CVCC
Known mistypes of this pair
Frequently Asked Questions
Do "head" and "Herr" mean the same thing in a sentence?
Frequency check: "head" vs "Herr" - which ranks higher?
What to do next
Eye-level mix-up between "head" and "Herr" is sorted above. Next: full entries or other pairs that share a letter shape.
- Full dictionary entry for "head" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
- Full dictionary entry for "Herr" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
- This pair ranks #161,011 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
- "head" and "Herr" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "Herr vs heurt". 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 #161,011 of 440,172 scored French pairs, corpus vintage 2026-09-03, not spelling advice.