Which to use
“holes” and “hours” are a confusable English pair: similar on the page, but distinct in meaning, check the gloss before you choose.
- #3,949
- “holes” frequency rank
- #388
- “hours” frequency rank
- 4337
- confusion score
Side-by-Side Comparison
| Feature | holes | hours |
|---|---|---|
| Definition | plural of hole | plural of hour |
Where the eye mixes holes and hours
Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 3 letters in sequence.
Spelling & Dictionary Insight
A purely visual mix-up. holes (/həʊlz/) and hours (/ˈaʊə(ɹ)z/) are said differently, so reading them aloud is the quickest way to catch the wrong one. On the page they stay close: they share most of their letters but differ in 2 positions. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 4337, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.
holes is recorded at frequency rank #3,949, classified as anoun, pronounced /həʊlz/. hours is at rank #388, tagged as anoun, pronounced /ˈaʊə(ɹ)z/.
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 4337, this pair ranks #519,251 of 530,003 scored English confusable pairs - a relatively easy-to-tell-apart pair.
Orthographic DNA of holes vs hours
Shared letters: hos. Private to "holes": el. Private to "hours": ru.
"holes" · 5 letters · shape CVCVC · "hours" · 5 letters · shape CVVCC