holedvsHolleyWhich spelling fits?

Quick tell: holed is a verb, Holley is a name, so they fill different roles in a sentence.

Which to use

“holed” is a verb and “Holley” is a name - they look or sound alike but fill different roles in a sentence.

#27,497
“holed” frequency rank
#42,182
“Holley” frequency rank
69679
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature holed Holley
Definition simple past and past participle of hole A topographic surname from Middle English.

Letter map: holed vs Holley

Shared letters muted; letters that set holed and Holley apart highlighted. Shared run: 4. holed runs 5 letters (CVCVC) against Holley's 6 (CVCCVV) - the length gap alone is often enough to separate them once you know to check it.

5 ch
holed
6 ch
Holley

Part-of-speech tell for holed / Holley

Our dataset has no pronunciation recorded for both members, so the reliable separator here is grammatical: holed is averb and Holleyaname. On the page they differ by 1 letter(s) in length. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 69679, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

holed is recorded at frequency rank #27,497, classified as averb, pronounced /hoʊld/. Holley is at rank #42,182, tagged as aname.

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 69679, this pair ranks #53,548 of 530,003 scored English confusable pairs - among the most confusable pairs.

Orthographic DNA of holed vs Holley

Shared letters: ehlo. Private to "holed": d. Private to "Holley": y.

"holed" · 5 letters · shape CVCVC  ·  "Holley" · 6 letters · shape CVCCVV

Known mistypes of this pair

  • holed ← hholed · hloed · hoeld · holde · holedd · holled · ohled
  • Holley ← hholley · hloley · holely · holey · holleyy · hollye · ohlley

Frequently Asked Questions

Is swapping "holed" for "Holley" ever safe?
No - they are not even the same part of speech. "holed" is a verb and "Holley" a name, so a sentence built for one is usually ungrammatical with the other.
Frequency check: "holed" vs "Holley" - which ranks higher?
"holed" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #27,497 in our English list, against #42,182 for "Holley". The two are close in frequency, so neither is a safe default; check the meaning rather than guessing.

After this comparison

Done with this confusable. These links stay specific to "holed" and "Holley".

  • Full dictionary entry for "holed" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "Holley" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #53,548 of 530,003 scored English confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "holed" and "Holley" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "Holley vs Holtby". 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 #53,548 of 530,003 scored English pairs, corpus vintage 2026-09-03, not spelling advice.

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

Source: FrequencyWords open word-frequency list