Which to use
“head” is an adjective and “hem” is an intj - they look or sound alike but fill different roles in a sentence.
- #10,735
- “head” frequency rank
- #27,124
- “hem” frequency rank
- 37859
- confusion score
Side-by-Side Comparison
| Feature | head | hem |
|---|---|---|
| Definition | central (principal) | expressa incompreensão, não entendimento, simultaneamente comunicando àquele ao qual se dirige, que elucide o sentido, o nexo, que dê clareza ou que melhor se fale ou expresse o que se acabou de comunicar |
Letter map: head vs hem
Shared letters muted; letters that set head and hem apart highlighted. Shared run: 2.
Part-of-speech tell for head / hem
Our dataset has no pronunciation recorded for both members, so the reliable separator here is grammatical: head is anadjective and hemanintj. On the page they differ by 1 letter(s) in length. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 37859, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.
head is recorded at frequency rank #10,735, classified as anadj. hem is at rank #27,124, 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 37859, this pair ranks #28,698 of 75,631 scored Portuguese confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.
Orthographic DNA of head vs hem
Shared letters: eh. Private to "head": ad. Private to "hem": m.
"head" · 4 letters · shape CVVC · "hem" · 3 letters · shape CVC
Known mistypes of this pair
- head ← ehad · haed · headd · heda · hhead
Frequently Asked Questions
Is swapping "head" for "hem" ever safe?
Which is more common, "head" or "hem"?
Useful next steps
Pair "head" vs "hem" is on the table, pick a follow-up below.
- Full dictionary entry for "head" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
- Full dictionary entry for "hem" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
- This pair ranks #28,698 of 75,631 scored Portuguese confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
- "head" and "hem" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "hem vs hui". 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 #28,698 of 75,631 scored Portuguese pairs, corpus vintage 2026-09-03, not spelling advice.