Which to use
“hailed” and “holed” are a confusable English pair: similar on the page, but distinct in meaning, check the gloss before you choose.
- #15,184
- “hailed” frequency rank
- #27,497
- “holed” frequency rank
- 42681
- confusion score
Side-by-Side Comparison
| Feature | hailed | holed |
|---|---|---|
| Definition | simple past and past participle of hail | simple past and past participle of hole |
Where the eye mixes hailed and holed
Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 4 letters in sequence.
Why the eye confuses hailed with holed
A purely visual mix-up. hailed (/heɪld/) and holed (/hoʊld/) are said differently, so reading them aloud is the quickest way to catch the wrong one. On the page they stay close: they differ by 1 letter(s) in length. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 42681, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.
hailed is recorded at frequency rank #15,184, classified as averb, pronounced /heɪld/. holed is at rank #27,497, tagged as averb, pronounced /hoʊld/.
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 42681, this pair ranks #247,040 of 530,003 scored English confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.
Orthographic DNA of hailed vs holed
Shared letters: dehl. Private to "hailed": ai. Private to "holed": o.
"hailed" · 6 letters · shape CVVCVC · "holed" · 5 letters · shape CVCVC
Known mistypes of this pair
Frequently Asked Questions
Is swapping "hailed" for "holed" ever safe?
Which is more common, "hailed" or "holed"?
Useful next steps
Eye-level mix-up between "hailed" and "holed" is sorted above. Next: full entries or other pairs that share a letter shape.
- Full dictionary entry for "hailed" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
- Full dictionary entry for "holed" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
- This pair ranks #247,040 of 530,003 scored English confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
- "hailed" and "holed" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "holed vs holier". 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 #247,040 of 530,003 scored English pairs, corpus vintage 2026-09-03, not spelling advice.