Which to use
“ahold” and “aloud” are a confusable English pair: similar on the page, but distinct in meaning, check the gloss before you choose.
- #34,370
- “ahold” frequency rank
- #14,689
- “aloud” frequency rank
- 49059
- confusion score
Side-by-Side Comparison
| Feature | ahold | aloud |
|---|---|---|
| Definition | Brought to lie as near to the windward as it can to get out to sea, and thereby held steady. | With a loud voice, or great noise; loudly; audibly. |
Where the eye mixes ahold and aloud
Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 3 letters in sequence. ahold (VCVCC) and aloud (VCVVC) run the same length but a different consonant-vowel pattern - the shape difference is usually the fastest tell.
Why the eye confuses ahold with aloud
A purely visual mix-up. ahold (/əˈhoʊld/) and aloud (/əˈlaʊd/) are said differently, so reading them aloud is the quickest way to catch the wrong one. On the page they stay close: they share most of their letters but differ in 2 positions. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 49059, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.
ahold is recorded at frequency rank #34,370, classified as anadv, pronounced /əˈhoʊld/. aloud is at rank #14,689, tagged as anadv, pronounced /əˈlaʊd/.
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 49059, this pair ranks #187,243 of 530,003 scored English confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.
Orthographic DNA of ahold vs aloud
Shared letters: adlo. Private to "ahold": h. Private to "aloud": u.
"ahold" · 5 letters · shape VCVCC · "aloud" · 5 letters · shape VCVVC
Known mistypes of this pair
Frequently Asked Questions
Is swapping "ahold" for "aloud" ever safe?
In ordinary English text, does "ahold" or "aloud" show up more?
What to do next
Visual near-miss handled. Browse the word pages or a neighbour when the next look-alike shows up.
- Full dictionary entry for "ahold" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
- Full dictionary entry for "aloud" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
- This pair ranks #187,243 of 530,003 scored English confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
- "ahold" and "aloud" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "ahold vs AWOL". 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 #187,243 of 530,003 scored English pairs, corpus vintage 2026-09-03, not spelling advice.