Which to use
“hole” and “HOV” are a confusable English pair: similar on the page, but distinct in meaning, check the gloss before you choose.
- #2,206
- “hole” frequency rank
- #47,679
- “HOV” frequency rank
- 49885
- confusion score
Side-by-Side Comparison
| Feature | hole | HOV |
|---|---|---|
| Definition | A hollow place or cavity; an excavation; a pit; a dent; a depression; a fissure. | Initialism of high-occupancy vehicle. |
Where the eye mixes hole and HOV
Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 2 letters in sequence. hole runs 4 letters (CVCV) against HOV's 3 (CVC) - the length gap alone is often enough to separate them once you know to check it.
Look-alike desk: hole vs HOV
A purely visual mix-up. hole (/həʊl/) and HOV (/eɪt͡ʃ əʊ ˈviː/) 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 49885, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.
hole is recorded at frequency rank #2,206, classified as anoun, pronounced /həʊl/. HOV is at rank #47,679, tagged as anoun, pronounced /eɪt͡ʃ əʊ ˈviː/.
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 49885, this pair ranks #179,373 of 530,003 scored English confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.
Orthographic DNA of hole vs HOV
Shared letters: ho. Private to "hole": el. Private to "HOV": v.
"hole" · 4 letters · shape CVCV · "HOV" · 3 letters · shape CVC
Known mistypes of this pair
- hole ← hhole · hloe · hoel · holle · ohle
Frequently Asked Questions
Is swapping "hole" for "HOV" ever safe?
In ordinary English text, does "hole" or "HOV" show up more?
What to do next
Visual near-miss handled. Browse the word pages or a neighbour when the next look-alike shows up.
- Full dictionary entry for "hole" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
- Full dictionary entry for "HOV" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
- This pair ranks #179,373 of 530,003 scored English confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
- "hole" and "HOV" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "hoke vs HOV". 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 #179,373 of 530,003 scored English pairs, corpus vintage 2026-09-03, not spelling advice.