Which to use
“heart” and “heavy” are a confusable French pair: similar on the page, but distinct in meaning, check the gloss before you choose.
- #15,642
- “heart” frequency rank
- #19,854
- “heavy” frequency rank
- 35496
- confusion score
Side-by-Side Comparison
| Feature | heart | heavy |
|---|---|---|
| Definition | Cœur, organe vital. | Heavy metal : forme de musique proche du hard rock, utilisant traditionnellement des guitares, des guitares basses au son plus ou moins saturé, une batterie et un chanteur. D’autres instruments peuvent être utilisés (piano, synthétiseur, etc.). |
Where the eye mixes heart and heavy
Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 3 letters in sequence. heart (CVVCC) and heavy (CVVCV) run the same length but a different consonant-vowel pattern - the shape difference is usually the fastest tell.
Why the eye confuses heart with heavy
A purely visual mix-up. heart ([hɑːt]) and heavy (\ɛ.vi\) are said differently, so reading them aloud is the quickest way to catch the wrong one. On the page they stay close: they share most of their letters but differ in 2 positions. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 35496, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.
heart is recorded at frequency rank #15,642, classified as anoun, pronounced [hɑːt]. heavy is at rank #19,854, tagged as anoun, pronounced \ɛ.vi\.
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 35496, this pair ranks #276,358 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.
Orthographic DNA of heart vs heavy
Shared letters: aeh. Private to "heart": rt. Private to "heavy": vy.
"heart" · 5 letters · shape CVVCC · "heavy" · 5 letters · shape CVVCV
Known mistypes of this pair
Frequently Asked Questions
Can "heart" and "heavy" be used interchangeably?
Which is more common, "heart" or "heavy"?
Useful next steps
Visual near-miss handled. Browse the word pages or a neighbour when the next look-alike shows up.
- Full dictionary entry for "heart" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
- Full dictionary entry for "heavy" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
- This pair ranks #276,358 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
- "heart" and "heavy" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "heart 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 #276,358 of 440,172 scored French pairs, corpus vintage 2026-09-03, not spelling advice.