Which to use
“held” and “hid” are a confusable English pair: similar on the page, but distinct in meaning, check the gloss before you choose.
- #572
- “held” frequency rank
- #9,760
- “hid” frequency rank
- 10332
- confusion score
Side-by-Side Comparison
| Feature | held | hid |
|---|---|---|
| Definition | simple past and past participle of hold | simple past of hide |
Where the eye mixes held and hid
Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 2 letters in sequence.
Visual trap between held and hid
A purely visual mix-up. held (/ˈhɛld/) and hid (/hɪd/) 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 10332, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.
held is recorded at frequency rank #572, classified as averb, pronounced /ˈhɛld/. hid is at rank #9,760, tagged as averb, pronounced /hɪd/.
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 10332, this pair ranks #492,866 of 530,003 scored English confusable pairs - a relatively easy-to-tell-apart pair.
Orthographic DNA of held vs hid
Shared letters: dh. Private to "held": el. Private to "hid": i.
"held" · 4 letters · shape CVCC · "hid" · 3 letters · shape CVC
Known mistypes of this pair
- held ← ehld · hedl · heldd · helld · hheld · hled
Frequently Asked Questions
Is swapping "held" for "hid" ever safe?
Which is more common, "held" or "hid"?
After this comparison
Visual near-miss handled. Browse the word pages or a neighbour when the next look-alike shows up.
- Full dictionary entry for "held" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
- Full dictionary entry for "hid" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
- This pair ranks #492,866 of 530,003 scored English confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
- "held" and "hid" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "hid vs HIIT". 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 #492,866 of 530,003 scored English pairs, corpus vintage 2026-09-03, not spelling advice.