holyvsHolzConfusable pair

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

Which to use

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

#14,833
“holy” frequency rank
#1,925
“Holz” frequency rank
16758
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature holy Holz
Definition heilig aus Zellulose und Lignin bestehende Masse eines Baumes

Letter map: holy vs Holz

Shared letters muted; letters that set holy and Holz apart highlighted. Shared run: 3.

4 ch
holy
4 ch
Holz

Part-of-speech tell for holy / Holz

Our dataset has no pronunciation recorded for both members, so the reliable separator here is grammatical: holy is anadjective and Holzanoun. On the page they differ by a single letter - y in “holy” becomes z in “Holz”. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 16758, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

holy is recorded at frequency rank #14,833, classified as anadj, pronounced […]. Holz is at rank #1,925, tagged as anoun, pronounced [hɔlt͡s].

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 16758, this pair ranks #1,933,212 of 2,006,359 scored German confusable pairs - a relatively easy-to-tell-apart pair.

Orthographic DNA of holy vs Holz

Shared letters: hlo. Private to "holy": y. Private to "Holz": z.

"holy" · 4 letters · shape CVCV  ·  "Holz" · 4 letters · shape CVCC

Known mistypes of this pair

  • holyhholy · hloy · holyy · hoyl · ohly
  • Holzhholz · hloz · hollz · holzz · hozl · ohlz

Frequently Asked Questions

Is swapping "holy" for "Holz" ever safe?
No - they are not even the same part of speech. "holy" is an adjective and "Holz" a noun, so a sentence built for one is usually ungrammatical with the other.
In ordinary German text, does "holy" or "Holz" show up more?
"Holz" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #1,925 in our German list, against #14,833 for "holy". The two are close in frequency, so neither is a safe default; check the meaning rather than guessing.

Useful next steps

Done with this confusable. These links stay specific to "holy" and "Holz".

  • Full dictionary entry for "holy" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "Holz" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #1,933,212 of 2,006,359 scored German confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "holy" and "Holz" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "holy vs puzzles". 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 #1,933,212 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