Which to use
“holy” and “hourly” are a confusable English pair: similar on the page, but distinct in meaning, check the gloss before you choose.
- #1,396
- “holy” frequency rank
- #11,043
- “hourly” frequency rank
- 12439
- confusion score
Side-by-Side Comparison
| Feature | holy | hourly |
|---|---|---|
| Definition | Dedicated to a religious purpose or a god. | Occurring every hour. |
Where the eye mixes holy and hourly
Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 4 letters in sequence.
Look-alike desk: holy vs hourly
A purely visual mix-up. holy (/ˈhəʊli/) and hourly (/ˈaʊ̯əli/) 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 2 letter(s) in length. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 12439, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.
holy is recorded at frequency rank #1,396, classified as anadj, pronounced /ˈhəʊli/. hourly is at rank #11,043, tagged as anadj, pronounced /ˈaʊ̯əli/.
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 12439, this pair ranks #481,570 of 530,003 scored English confusable pairs - a relatively easy-to-tell-apart pair.
Orthographic DNA of holy vs hourly
Shared letters: hloy. Private to "holy": -. Private to "hourly": ru.
"holy" · 4 letters · shape CVCV · "hourly" · 6 letters · shape CVVCCV
Known mistypes of this pair
Frequently Asked Questions
Can "holy" and "hourly" be used interchangeably?
Frequency check: "holy" vs "hourly" - which ranks higher?
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 "holy" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
- Full dictionary entry for "hourly" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
- This pair ranks #481,570 of 530,003 scored English confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
- "holy" and "hourly" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "homily vs hourly". 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 #481,570 of 530,003 scored English pairs, corpus vintage 2026-09-03, not spelling advice.