# holly vs howls

> English confusable word pair

## The two words

### holly
*noun · IPA /ˈhɒli/ · frequency rank #8,555*
Any of various shrubs or (mostly) small trees, of the genus Ilex, either evergreen or deciduous, used as decoration especially at Christmas.

### howls
*noun · IPA /haʊlz/ · frequency rank #37,974*
plural of howl

## Source
Compiled from Wiktionary via kaikki.org (CC BY-SA). Data vintage: 2026-05-06.
Canonical page: https://plainspell.com/en/vs/holly-vs-howls