Heed

How to spell heed

4 letters · 1 syllable

How to pronounce heed

What does heed mean?

1. verbTo pay careful attention to advice, a warning, or instructions.
2. nounCareful attention or notice, especially as in the phrase 'take heed'.

Heed in a sentence

• verb

  Drivers should heed the warning signs near the roadworks.

• noun

  She paid little heed to the rumours circulating at work.

• verb

  Investors who heed expert advice tend to avoid costly mistakes.

• noun

  The hikers took heed of the weather forecast and turned back early.

Where does heed come from?

Language of origin: Germanic

This is a native English word, descending from the Old English verb hēdan, which meant 'to take care of, watch over, or attend to'. It belongs to a family of West Germanic words, with close relatives in the Old Saxon hōdian and the modern German hüten, all carrying the sense of guarding or minding something. The deeper root is thought to connect with the idea of a covering or protection, the same notion that underlies the word 'hood', since both involve sheltering or keeping watch. Over the centuries the meaning narrowed from physically guarding to the more mental act of paying careful attention to advice or warning. The spelling stayed compact and short, which is exactly the trap: it sounds identical to the contraction 'he'd', so the danger is reaching for the wrong word rather than the wrong letters.

How the word is built

• heed (from Old English hēdan: to take care, attend to); a single unanalysable root with no prefix or suffix

Words that sound like heed

They sound the same but mean different things, so the meaning decides which spelling to write.

• he'd: Contraction of 'he would', expressing a conditional action, intention, or habitual past behaviour.