Ho or hoe?
ho is an interjection meaning “Used to attract attention to something sighted, usually by lookouts”; hoe is a noun meaning “An agricultural and horticultural hand tool consisting of a long handle with a…”. Use ho as an interjection and hoe as a noun (ho is also a noun: “A stop; a halt; a moderation of pace”). They sound the same (/həʊ/). In written English (wordfreq, 2021 data) ho is about 9.3 times as common as hoe.
What is the difference between ho and hoe?
| ho | hoe | |
|---|---|---|
| Part of speech | interjection, noun, verb | noun, verb |
| Meaning | Used to attract attention to something sighted, usually by lookouts halloo; hey; a call to excite attention, or to give notice of approach A stop; a halt; a moderation of pace | An agricultural and horticultural hand tool consisting of a long handle with a flat blade fixed perpendicular to it at the end, used for digging rows or… Any of several implements or machines usually called by their more specific names, for example, backhoe To cut, dig, scrape, turn, arrange, or clean, with this tool |
| Example | Sail ho! | For their organic row crops, they do the weeding with hoes. They get in there often, but it goes fast, and the weeds never get ahead |
| Forms | hos, hoes, hoe, 'ho, hoeing, hoed | hoes |
| Pronunciation | /həʊ/ /hoʊ/ /hoʔ/ | /həʊ/ /hoʊ/ /həʉ/ |
| In writing | 17 times per million words | 1.8 times per million words |
Sources: ho and hoe in the English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0); written frequency: wordfreq 3.1 (a 2021 snapshot of Wikipedia, subtitles, news, books, web text and social media).
Every current meaning of ho and hoe
ho
- 1
Used to attract attention to something sighted, usually by lookouts
Sail ho!
- 2
A stop; a halt; a moderation of pace
- 3
USderogatoryslangvulgarA whore; a sexually promiscuous woman; in general use as a highly offensive term of abuse for a woman with connotations of loose sexuality
Bros before hoes!
- 4
USslangvulgarTo act as a ho, to prostitute
- 5
A Central-Eastern Indian Adivasi tribe numbering around 1 million, mainly following the religion of Sarna Dhorom
- 6
Initialism of head office
- 7
Contraction of whore
- 8
halloo; hey; a call to excite attention, or to give notice of approach
hoe
- 1
An agricultural and horticultural hand tool consisting of a long handle with a flat blade fixed perpendicular to it at the end, used for digging rows or removing weeds by hand
For their organic row crops, they do the weeding with hoes. They get in there often, but it goes fast, and the weeds never get ahead
- 2
To cut, dig, scrape, turn, arrange, or clean, with this tool
to hoe the earth in a garden
- 3
derogatoryslangAlternative spelling of ho (“whore, prostitute”)
- 4
USslangAlternative spelling of ho (“to prostitute”)
- 5
A piece of land that juts out towards the sea; a promontory
- 6
The horned or piked dogfish, Squalus acanthias
- 7
Any of several implements or machines usually called by their more specific names, for example, backhoe
The grading is on hold. In the meantime, get that hoe over here and work on this utility trench. [Instructions issued to a worker who will operate a backhoe]
- 8
To clear from weeds, or to loosen or arrange the earth about, with a hoe
to hoe corn
Source: the English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0); obsolete, archaic, dialect and rare senses left out.
Which is more common, ho or hoe?
ho appears 17 times per million words; hoe 1.8 times per million words.
ho 17 times per million wordshoe 1.8 times per million words
Source: written frequency: wordfreq 3.1 (a 2021 snapshot of Wikipedia, subtitles, news, books, web text and social media).
How many people search ho vs hoe?
“ho vs hoe” is searched about 1,900 times a month on Google and 60 on Bing in the United States. Google counts close variants of a query together (“hoe vs ho”, “ho or hoe”).
Sources: Google Ads keyword data through DataForSEO and Microsoft Advertising keyword data through DataForSEO, the average month from September 2025 to August 2026.