holevsHulmeWhat's the difference?

Quick tell: hole is a noun, Hulme is a name, so they fill different roles in a sentence.

Which to use

“hole” is a noun and “Hulme” is a name - they look or sound alike but fill different roles in a sentence.

#2,206
“hole” frequency rank
#49,407
“Hulme” frequency rank
51613
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature hole Hulme
Definition A hollow place or cavity; an excavation; a pit; a dent; a depression; a fissure. A northern suburb of Warrington, Cheshire, England (OS grid ref SJ6091).

Where the spellings diverge

Shared letters are muted; the letters that actually set hole and Hulme apart are highlighted. They share 3 letters in sequence, which is exactly why the eye skips the difference.

4 ch
hole
5 ch
Hulme

Spelling & Dictionary Insight

These two trip readers on the page rather than in the ear: hole is /həʊl/ while Hulme is /ˈhjuːm/. Spoken aloud the problem disappears. In writing it persists, because they differ by 1 letter(s) in length, and the parts of speech differ too (noun vs name), which is usually the fastest check. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 51613, 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/. Hulme is at rank #49,407, tagged as aname, pronounced /ˈhjuːm/.

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 51613, this pair ranks #164,004 of 530,003 scored English confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.

Orthographic DNA of hole vs Hulme

Shared letters: ehl. Private to "hole": o. Private to "Hulme": mu.

"hole" · 4 letters · shape CVCV  ·  "Hulme" · 5 letters · shape CVCCV

Known mistypes of this pair

  • holehhole · hloe · hoel · holle · ohle
  • Hulmehhulme · hlume · hulem · hullme · hulmme · humle · uhlme

Frequency comparison

hole#2,206
Hulme#49,407

Source: FrequencyWords open word-frequency list

Frequently Asked Questions

Can "hole" and "Hulme" be used interchangeably?
No - they are not even the same part of speech. "hole" is a noun and "Hulme" a name, so a sentence built for one is usually ungrammatical with the other.
Which is more common, "hole" or "Hulme"?
"hole" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #2,206 in our English list, against #49,407 for "Hulme". That is a wide gap, so in ordinary text the rarer spelling is the one worth double-checking.

Remembering hole vs Hulme

The fastest way to pick the right one every time.

  • Check the role first: if you need a noun, it's “hole”; for a name, it's “Hulme”.
  • See each word in full, definition, IPA, etymology and its other confusables. Full “hole” entry
  • Browse more pairs most likely to be confused. Most confusable

Source: Wiktionary (via kaikki.org) Structured Wiktionary extract

Source: FrequencyWords open word-frequency list