headvsheinWhat's the difference?

Quick tell: head is a adjective, hein is an intj, so they fill different roles in a sentence.

Which to use

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

#10,735
“head” frequency rank
#3,208
“hein” frequency rank
13943
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature head hein
Definition central (principal) expressa incompreensão, não entendimento, simultaneamente comunicando àquele ao qual se dirige, que elucide o sentido, o nexo, que dê clarificação ou que melhor se fale ou expresse o que se acabou de comunicar

Letter map: head vs hein

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

4 ch
head
4 ch
hein

Grammar separator: head vs hein

Our dataset has no pronunciation recorded for both members, so the reliable separator here is grammatical: head is anadjective and heinanintj. On the page they share most of their letters but differ in 2 positions. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 13943, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

head is recorded at frequency rank #10,735, classified as anadj. hein is at rank #3,208, tagged as anintj, pronounced /ẽɲ/.

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 13943, this pair ranks #58,270 of 75,631 scored Portuguese confusable pairs - a relatively easy-to-tell-apart pair.

Orthographic DNA of head vs hein

Shared letters: eh. Private to "head": ad. Private to "hein": in.

"head" · 4 letters · shape CVVC  ·  "hein" · 4 letters · shape CVVC

Known mistypes of this pair

  • headehad · haed · headd · heda · hhead
  • heinehin · heinn · heni · hhein · hien

Frequently Asked Questions

Do "head" and "hein" mean the same thing in a sentence?
No - they are not even the same part of speech. "head" is an adjective and "hein" an intj, so a sentence built for one is usually ungrammatical with the other.
Which is more common, "head" or "hein"?
"hein" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #3,208 in our Portuguese list, against #10,735 for "head". The two are close in frequency, so neither is a safe default; check the meaning rather than guessing.

After this comparison

Done with this confusable. These links stay specific to "head" and "hein".

  • Full dictionary entry for "head" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "hein" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #58,270 of 75,631 scored Portuguese confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "head" and "hein" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "head vs Hebe". 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 #58,270 of 75,631 scored Portuguese pairs, corpus vintage 2026-09-03, not spelling advice.

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

Source: FrequencyWords open word-frequency list