manholevsmanhoodConfusable pair

Which to use

“manhole” and “manhood” are a confusable English pair: similar on the page, but distinct in meaning, check the gloss before you choose.

#39,412
“manhole” frequency rank
#23,593
“manhood” frequency rank
63005
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature manhole manhood
Definition A hole in the ground used to access the sewers or other underground vaults and installations. The state or condition of being a human being.

Where the eye mixes manhole and manhood

Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 5 letters in sequence. manhole (CVCCVCV) and manhood (CVCCVVC) run the same length but a different consonant-vowel pattern - the shape difference is usually the fastest tell.

7 ch
manhole
7 ch
manhood

Look-alike desk: manhole vs manhood

A purely visual mix-up. manhole (/ˈmænhəʊl/) and manhood (/ˈmænhʊd/) 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 63005, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

manhole is recorded at frequency rank #39,412, classified as anoun, pronounced /ˈmænhəʊl/. manhood is at rank #23,593, tagged as anoun, pronounced /ˈmænhʊd/.

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 63005, this pair ranks #85,405 of 530,003 scored English confusable pairs - among the most confusable pairs.

Orthographic DNA of manhole vs manhood

Shared letters: ahmno. Private to "manhole": el. Private to "manhood": d.

"manhole" · 7 letters · shape CVCCVCV  ·  "manhood" · 7 letters · shape CVCCVVC

Known mistypes of this pair

  • manhole ← amnhole · mahnole · manhhole · manhloe · manhoel · manholle · mannhole · manohle
  • manhood ← amnhood · mahnood · manhhood · manhod · manhodo · manhoodd · mannhood · manohod

Frequently Asked Questions

Can "manhole" and "manhood" be used interchangeably?
No. They are said differently (/ˈmænhəʊl/ versus /ˈmænhʊd/) and carry different meanings; reading the sentence aloud is usually enough to catch the wrong one.
Which is more common, "manhole" or "manhood"?
"manhood" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #23,593 in our English list, against #39,412 for "manhole". The two are close in frequency, so neither is a safe default; check the meaning rather than guessing.

After this comparison

Eye-level mix-up between "manhole" and "manhood" is sorted above. Next: full entries or other pairs that share a letter shape.

  • Full dictionary entry for "manhole" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "manhood" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #85,405 of 530,003 scored English confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "manhole" and "manhood" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "manhood vs Masood". 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 #85,405 of 530,003 scored English pairs, corpus vintage 2026-09-03, not spelling advice.

Source: Wiktionary (via kaikki.org) Structured Wiktionary extract

Source: FrequencyWords open word-frequency list