Which to use
“holed” and “hurled” are a confusable English pair: similar on the page, but distinct in meaning, check the gloss before you choose.
- #27,497
- “holed” frequency rank
- #26,121
- “hurled” frequency rank
- 53618
- confusion score
Side-by-Side Comparison
| Feature | holed | hurled |
|---|---|---|
| Definition | simple past and past participle of hole | simple past and past participle of hurl |
Where the eye mixes holed and hurled
Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 4 letters in sequence.
Why the eye confuses holed with hurled
A purely visual mix-up. holed (/hoʊld/) and hurled (/hɜːld/) 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 1 letter(s) in length. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 53618, 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/. hurled is at rank #26,121, tagged as averb, pronounced /hɜːld/.
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 53618, this pair ranks #147,546 of 530,003 scored English confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.
Orthographic DNA of holed vs hurled
Shared letters: dehl. Private to "holed": o. Private to "hurled": ru.
"holed" · 5 letters · shape CVCVC · "hurled" · 6 letters · shape CVCCVC
Known mistypes of this pair
Frequently Asked Questions
Do "holed" and "hurled" mean the same thing in a sentence?
In ordinary English text, does "holed" or "hurled" show up more?
After this comparison
Visual near-miss handled. Browse the word pages or a neighbour when the next look-alike shows up.
- Full dictionary entry for "holed" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
- Full dictionary entry for "hurled" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
- This pair ranks #147,546 of 530,003 scored English confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
- "holed" and "hurled" 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 #147,546 of 530,003 scored English pairs, corpus vintage 2026-09-03, not spelling advice.