Holey or holy?
holey is an adjective meaning “Having, or being full of, holes”; holy is an adjective meaning “Dedicated to a religious purpose or a god”. In written English (wordfreq, 2021 data) holy is about 562 times as common as holey.
What is the difference between holey and holy?
| holey | holy | |
|---|---|---|
| Part of speech | adjective | adjective, interjection, noun |
| Meaning | Having, or being full of, holes | Dedicated to a religious purpose or a god Revered in a religion |
| Example | Fred loved holey Dutch cheese | I'm planning to visit the holy city of Jerusalem this Christmas |
| Forms | holier, holiest | holier, holiest |
| Pronunciation | /ˈhəʊl.li/ [ˈhɒʊli] [ˈhɒʊɫ.li] | /ˈhəʊli/ /ˈhoʊli/ |
| In writing | about once in every 7 million words | 76 times per million words |
Sources: holey and holy in the English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0); written frequency: wordfreq 3.1 (a 2021 snapshot of Wikipedia, subtitles, news, books, web text and social media).
Every current meaning of holey and holy
holey
- 1
Having, or being full of, holes
Fred loved holey Dutch cheese
holy
- 1
Dedicated to a religious purpose or a god
I'm planning to visit the holy city of Jerusalem this Christmas
- 2
slangAn expression of astonishment and awe
- 3
Alternative letter-case form of holy used when referring to an important figure, such as God, or to an important item or event
- 4
Revered in a religion
This tree is considered holy in my culture
- 5
Morally perfect or flawless, or nearly so
My grandmother is a very holy woman
- 6
Separated or set apart from (something unto something or someone else)
- 7
Set apart or dedicated for a specific purpose, or for use by a single entity or person
- 8
slangUsed as an intensifier in various interjections
Holy cow, I can’t believe he actually lost the race!
Source: the English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0); obsolete, archaic, dialect and rare senses left out.
Which is more common, holey or holy?
holey appears about once in every 7 million words; holy 76 times per million words.
holey about once in every 7 million wordsholy 76 times per million words
Source: written frequency: wordfreq 3.1 (a 2021 snapshot of Wikipedia, subtitles, news, books, web text and social media).
How many people search holey vs holy?
“holey vs holy” is searched about 50 times a month on Google and 10 on Bing in the United States. Google counts close variants of a query together (“holy vs holey”, “holey or holy”).
Sources: Google Ads keyword data through DataForSEO and Microsoft Advertising keyword data through DataForSEO, the average month from September 2025 to August 2026.