Which to use
“unfold” and “uphold” are a confusable English pair: similar on the page, but distinct in meaning, check the gloss before you choose.
- #16,155
- “unfold” frequency rank
- #14,663
- “uphold” frequency rank
- 30818
- confusion score
Side-by-Side Comparison
| Feature | unfold | uphold |
|---|---|---|
| Definition | To undo a folding. | To hold up; to lift on high; to elevate. |
Where the eye mixes unfold and uphold
Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 4 letters in sequence. unfold and uphold follow the identical consonant-vowel pattern (VCCVCC). Same shape at a glance is often the real trap, independent of shared letters.
Look-alike desk: unfold vs uphold
A purely visual mix-up. unfold (/ʌnˈfoʊld/) and uphold (/ˌʌpˈhəʊld/) 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 30818, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.
unfold is recorded at frequency rank #16,155, classified as averb, pronounced /ʌnˈfoʊld/. uphold is at rank #14,663, tagged as averb, pronounced /ˌʌpˈhəʊld/.
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 30818, this pair ranks #351,334 of 530,003 scored English confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.
Orthographic DNA of unfold vs uphold
Shared letters: dlou. Private to "unfold": fn. Private to "uphold": hp.
"unfold" · 6 letters · shape VCCVCC · "uphold" · 6 letters · shape VCCVCC
Known mistypes of this pair
Frequently Asked Questions
Is swapping "unfold" for "uphold" ever safe?
In ordinary English text, does "unfold" or "uphold" show up more?
What to do next
Eye-level mix-up between "unfold" and "uphold" is sorted above. Next: full entries or other pairs that share a letter shape.
- Full dictionary entry for "unfold" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
- Full dictionary entry for "uphold" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
- This pair ranks #351,334 of 530,003 scored English confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
- "unfold" and "uphold" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "unfold vs unsold". 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 #351,334 of 530,003 scored English pairs, corpus vintage 2026-09-03, not spelling advice.