Which to use
“hobbled” and “holed” are a confusable English pair: similar on the page, but distinct in meaning, check the gloss before you choose.
- #48,282
- “hobbled” frequency rank
- #27,497
- “holed” frequency rank
- 75779
- confusion score
Side-by-Side Comparison
| Feature | hobbled | holed |
|---|---|---|
| Definition | simple past and past participle of hobble | simple past and past participle of hole |
Letter map: hobbled vs holed
Shared letters muted; letters that set hobbled and holed apart highlighted. Shared run: 5. hobbled runs 7 letters (CVCCCVC) against holed's 5 (CVCVC) - the length gap alone is often enough to separate them once you know to check it.
Corpus notes: hobbled and holed
hobbled and holed are indexed as a confusable English pair. We have no recorded pronunciation or part of speech for both members, so the spelling overlap is what we can show you: they differ by 2 letter(s) in length. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 75779, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.
hobbled is recorded at frequency rank #48,282, classified as averb. 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 75779, this pair ranks #32,047 of 530,003 scored English confusable pairs - among the most confusable pairs.
Orthographic DNA of hobbled vs holed
Shared letters: dehlo. Private to "hobbled": b. Private to "holed": -.
"hobbled" · 7 letters · shape CVCCCVC · "holed" · 5 letters · shape CVCVC
Known mistypes of this pair
Frequently Asked Questions
Do "hobbled" and "holed" mean the same thing in a sentence?
In ordinary English text, does "hobbled" or "holed" show up more?
After this comparison
Pair "hobbled" vs "holed" is on the table, pick a follow-up below.
- Full dictionary entry for "hobbled" 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 #32,047 of 530,003 scored English confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
- "hobbled" and "holed" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "hobbled vs hotbed". 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 #32,047 of 530,003 scored English pairs, corpus vintage 2026-09-03, not spelling advice.