Which to use
“healed” and “holed” are a confusable English pair: similar on the page, but distinct in meaning, check the gloss before you choose.
- #11,896
- “healed” frequency rank
- #27,497
- “holed” frequency rank
- 39393
- confusion score
Side-by-Side Comparison
| Feature | healed | holed |
|---|---|---|
| Definition | simple past and past participle of heal | simple past and past participle of hole |
Where the eye mixes healed and holed
Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 4 letters in sequence.
Visual trap between healed and holed
A purely visual mix-up. healed (/hiːld/) 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 39393, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.
healed is recorded at frequency rank #11,896, classified as averb, pronounced /hiːld/. 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 39393, this pair ranks #277,152 of 530,003 scored English confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.
Orthographic DNA of healed vs holed
Shared letters: dehl. Private to "healed": a. Private to "holed": o.
"healed" · 6 letters · shape CVVCVC · "holed" · 5 letters · shape CVCVC
Known mistypes of this pair
Frequently Asked Questions
Do "healed" and "holed" mean the same thing in a sentence?
Frequency check: "healed" vs "holed" - which ranks higher?
Useful next steps
Visual near-miss handled. Browse the word pages or a neighbour when the next look-alike shows up.
- Full dictionary entry for "healed" 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 #277,152 of 530,003 scored English confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
- "healed" 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 #277,152 of 530,003 scored English pairs, corpus vintage 2026-09-03, not spelling advice.