Which to use
“healthy” is an adjective and “heath” is a noun - they look or sound alike but fill different roles in a sentence.
- #45,094
- “healthy” frequency rank
- #35,981
- “heath” frequency rank
- 81075
- confusion score
Side-by-Side Comparison
| Feature | healthy | heath |
|---|---|---|
| Definition | Bon pour la santé. | Bruyère. |
Where the eye mixes healthy and heath
Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 5 letters in sequence. healthy runs 7 letters (CVVCCCV) against heath's 5 (CVVCC) - the length gap alone is often enough to separate them once you know to check it.
Visual trap between healthy and heath
These two trip readers on the page rather than in the ear: healthy is ^((h aspiré))\ɛl.si\ while heath is \hiːθ\. Spoken aloud the problem disappears. In writing it persists, because they differ by 2 letter(s) in length, and the parts of speech differ too (adjective vs noun), which is usually the fastest check. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 81075, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.
healthy is recorded at frequency rank #45,094, classified as anadj, pronounced ^((h aspiré))\ɛl.si\. heath is at rank #35,981, tagged as anoun, pronounced \hiːθ\.
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 81075, this pair ranks #19,522 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - among the most confusable pairs.
Orthographic DNA of healthy vs heath
Shared letters: aeht. Private to "healthy": ly. Private to "heath": -.
"healthy" · 7 letters · shape CVVCCCV · "heath" · 5 letters · shape CVVCC
Known mistypes of this pair
Frequently Asked Questions
Can "healthy" and "heath" be used interchangeably?
Which is more common, "healthy" or "heath"?
What to do next
Visual near-miss handled. Browse the word pages or a neighbour when the next look-alike shows up.
- Full dictionary entry for "healthy" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
- Full dictionary entry for "heath" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
- This pair ranks #19,522 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
- "healthy" and "heath" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "hash vs heath". 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 #19,522 of 440,172 scored French pairs, corpus vintage 2026-09-03, not spelling advice.