holedvshuedWhat's the difference?

Quick tell: holed is a verb, hued is an adjective, so they fill different roles in a sentence.

Which to use

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

#27,497
“holed” frequency rank
#47,105
“hued” frequency rank
74602
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature holed hued
Definition simple past and past participle of hole Colored; having a hue.

Where the spellings diverge

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

5 ch
holed
4 ch
hued

Spelling & Dictionary Insight

Our dataset has no pronunciation recorded for both members, so the reliable separator here is grammatical: holed is averb and huedanadjective. On the page they differ by 1 letter(s) in length. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 74602, 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/. hued is at rank #47,105, tagged as anadj.

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 74602, this pair ranks #35,833 of 530,003 scored English confusable pairs - among the most confusable pairs.

Orthographic DNA of holed vs hued

Shared letters: deh. Private to "holed": lo. Private to "hued": u.

"holed" · 5 letters · shape CVCVC  ·  "hued" · 4 letters · shape CVVC

Known mistypes of this pair

  • holedhholed · hloed · hoeld · holde · holedd · holled · ohled
  • huedheud · hhued · hude · huedd · uhed

Frequency comparison

holed#27,497
hued#47,105

Source: FrequencyWords open word-frequency list

Frequently Asked Questions

Can "holed" and "hued" be used interchangeably?
No - they are not even the same part of speech. "holed" is a verb and "hued" an adjective, so a sentence built for one is usually ungrammatical with the other.
Which is more common, "holed" or "hued"?
"holed" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #27,497 in our English list, against #47,105 for "hued". The two are close in frequency, so neither is a safe default; check the meaning rather than guessing.

Remembering holed vs hued

The fastest way to pick the right one every time.

  • Check the role first: if you need a verb, it's “holed”; for an adjective, it's “hued”.
  • See each word in full, definition, IPA, etymology and its other confusables. Full “holed” 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