Use heal for getting better after illness, injury or hurt, and heel for the back of the foot or a shoe. Memory hook: heal starts like health, and a heel is the part of your foot that hits the ground first when you walk.
The core difference
Heal means to recover or make well; heel is a part of the foot or shoe.
- heal — to make well again, or to repair a rift: The wound took two weeks to heal completely.
- heel — the rounded back part of the foot or shoe: Her new boots rubbed a blister on her heel.
- heel — also a verb, for a boat leaning over or a dog walking close: The sailboat heeled sharply in the strong wind.
How to tell them apart
If something is getting better, use heal. It works for bodies and feelings alike: Time helped heal the grief they felt after the loss. It can also describe patching up a quarrel, as in The two brothers finally healed their long-standing feud.
If you mean a body part or the part of a shoe, use heel. The two words sound identical, so the slip happens in writing, for example when describing a sore: a blister on your heel may take a week to heal. Heel is also a slang word for a contemptible person.
