Hole or whole?
hole is a noun meaning “A hollow place or cavity; an excavation; a pit; a dent; a depression; a fissure”; whole is an adjective meaning “Entire, undivided”. Use hole as a noun and whole as an adjective (whole is also a noun: “Something complete, without any parts missing”). They sound the same (/həʊl/). In written English (wordfreq, 2021 data) whole is about 6.3 times as common as hole.
What is the difference between hole and whole?
| hole | whole | |
|---|---|---|
| Part of speech | noun, verb | adjective, adverb, noun |
| Meaning | A hollow place or cavity; an excavation; a pit; a dent; a depression; a fissure An opening that goes all the way through a solid body, a fabric, etc.; a perforation; a rent To make holes in (an object or surface) | Entire, undivided Used as an intensifier colloquialIn entirety; entirely; wholly |
| Example | I made a blind hole in the wall for a peg. I dug a hole and planted a tree in it | I ate a whole fish |
| Forms | holes @$$holes | wholer, wholest |
| Pronunciation | /həʊl/ [hɔʊɫ] /hɒl/ | /həʊl/ [hɜʊ̯ɫ] [hɒʊ̯ɫ] |
| In writing | 46 times per million words | 288 times per million words |
Sources: hole and whole 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 hole and whole
hole
- 1
A hollow place or cavity; an excavation; a pit; a dent; a depression; a fissure
I made a blind hole in the wall for a peg. I dug a hole and planted a tree in it
- 2
To make holes in (an object or surface)
Shrapnel holed the ship's hull
- 3
Censored spelling of asshole
- 4
Censored spelling of shithole
- 5
Censored spelling of asshole
- 6
An opening that goes all the way through a solid body, a fabric, etc.; a perforation; a rent
There’s a hole in my shoe. Her stocking has a hole in it
- 7
To destroy
She completely holed the argument
- 8
Censored spelling of shithole
whole
- 1
Entire, undivided
I ate a whole fish
- 2
colloquialIn entirety; entirely; wholly
I ate a fish whole!
- 3
Something complete, without any parts missing
This variety of fascinating details didn't fall together into an enjoyable, coherent whole
- 4
Used as an intensifier
I brought a whole lot of balloons for the party. She ate a whole bunch of french fries
- 5
An entirety
- 6
Sound, uninjured, healthy
He is of whole mind, but the same cannot be said about his physical state
- 7
From which none of its constituents has been removed
whole wheat; whole milk
- 8
As yet unworked
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, hole or whole?
hole appears 46 times per million words; whole 288 times per million words.
hole 46 times per million wordswhole 288 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 hole vs whole?
“hole vs whole” is searched about 1,300 times a month on Google and 30 on Bing in the United States. Google counts close variants of a query together (“whole vs hole”, “hole or whole”).
Sources: Google Ads keyword data through DataForSEO and Microsoft Advertising keyword data through DataForSEO, the average month from September 2025 to August 2026.