Which to use
“holed” and “hoped” are a confusable English pair: similar on the page, but distinct in meaning, check the gloss before you choose.
- #27,497
- “holed” frequency rank
- #4,456
- “hoped” frequency rank
- 31953
- confusion score
Side-by-Side Comparison
| Feature | holed | hoped |
|---|---|---|
| Definition | simple past and past participle of hole | simple past and past participle of hope |
Where the eye mixes holed and hoped
Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 4 letters in sequence.
Visual trap between holed and hoped
A purely visual mix-up. holed (/hoʊld/) and hoped (/hoʊpt/) 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 a single letter - l in “holed” becomes p in “hoped”. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 31953, 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/. hoped is at rank #4,456, tagged as averb, pronounced /hoʊpt/.
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 31953, this pair ranks #341,819 of 530,003 scored English confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.
Orthographic DNA of holed vs hoped
Shared letters: deho. Private to "holed": l. Private to "hoped": p.
"holed" · 5 letters · shape CVCVC · "hoped" · 5 letters · shape CVCVC
Known mistypes of this pair
Frequently Asked Questions
Do "holed" and "hoped" mean the same thing in a sentence?
In ordinary English text, does "holed" or "hoped" show up more?
What to do next
Pronunciation already separates them, if the page still looks alike, the dictionary links below settle it.
- Full dictionary entry for "holed" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
- Full dictionary entry for "hoped" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
- This pair ranks #341,819 of 530,003 scored English confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
- "holed" and "hoped" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "holed vs holier". 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 #341,819 of 530,003 scored English pairs, corpus vintage 2026-09-03, not spelling advice.