holdevsHürdeConfusable pair

Quick tell: holde is a adjective, Hürde is a noun, so they fill different roles in a sentence.

Which to use

“holde” is an adjective and “Hürde” is a noun - they look or sound alike but fill different roles in a sentence.

#45,352
“holde” frequency rank
#9,739
“Hürde” frequency rank
55091
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature holde Hürde
Definition Nominativ Singular Femininum der starken Deklination des Positivs des Adjektivs hold 76,20 bis 106,68 cm hohes Hindernis, das in bestimmten Abständen (ungefähr 8,50 bis 35 m) auf der Laufstrecke steht und vom Läufer überwunden werden muss, ohne dass es umfällt

Where the eye mixes holde and Hürde

Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 3 letters in sequence. holde and Hürde follow the identical consonant-vowel pattern (CVCCV). Same shape at a glance is often the real trap, independent of shared letters.

5 ch
holde
5 ch
Hürde

Look-alike desk: holde vs Hürde

These two trip readers on the page rather than in the ear: holde is [ˈhɔldə] while Hürde is [ˈhʏʁdə]. Spoken aloud the problem disappears. In writing it persists, because they share most of their letters but differ in 2 positions, and the parts of speech differ too (adjective vs noun), which is usually the fastest check. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 55091, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

holde is recorded at frequency rank #45,352, classified as anadj, pronounced [ˈhɔldə]. Hürde is at rank #9,739, tagged as anoun, pronounced [ˈhʏʁdə].

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 55091, this pair ranks #993,114 of 2,006,359 scored German confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.

Orthographic DNA of holde vs Hürde

Shared letters: deh. Private to "holde": lo. Private to "Hürde": rü.

"holde" · 5 letters · shape CVCCV  ·  "Hürde" · 5 letters · shape CVCCV

Known mistypes of this pair

  • holde ← hholde · hlode · hodle · holdde · holed · hollde · ohlde

Frequently Asked Questions

Is swapping "holde" for "Hürde" ever safe?
No - they are not even the same part of speech. "holde" is an adjective and "Hürde" a noun, so a sentence built for one is usually ungrammatical with the other.
Frequency check: "holde" vs "Hürde" - which ranks higher?
"Hürde" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #9,739 in our German list, against #45,352 for "holde". The two are close in frequency, so neither is a safe default; check the meaning rather than guessing.

Useful next steps

Eye-level mix-up between "holde" and "Hürde" is sorted above. Next: full entries or other pairs that share a letter shape.

  • Full dictionary entry for "holde" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "Hürde" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #993,114 of 2,006,359 scored German confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "holde" and "Hürde" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "hola vs holde". 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 #993,114 of 2,006,359 scored German pairs, corpus vintage 2026-09-03, not spelling advice.

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

Source: FrequencyWords open word-frequency list