whole vs wold, What's the Difference?

Which to use

“whole” is an adjective and “wold” is a noun - they look or sound alike but fill different roles in a sentence.

#333
“whole” frequency rank: #42,997
“wold” frequency rank: 43330
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature	whole	wold
Definition	Entire, undivided.	An unforested or deforested plain, a grassland, a moor.

Where the spellings diverge

Shared letters are muted; the letters that actually set whole and wold apart are highlighted. They share 3 letters in sequence, which is exactly why the eye skips the difference.

5 ch

whole

4 ch

wold

Spelling & Dictionary Insight

These two trip readers on the page rather than in the ear: whole is /həʊl/ while wold is /wəʊld/. Spoken aloud the problem disappears. In writing it persists, because they differ by 1 letter(s) in length, and the parts of speech differ too (adjective vs noun), which is usually the fastest check. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 43330, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

whole is recorded at frequency rank #333, classified as anadj, pronounced /həʊl/. wold is at rank #42,997, tagged as anoun, pronounced /wəʊld/.

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 43330, this pair ranks #241,014 of 530,003 scored English confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.

Orthographic DNA of whole vs wold

Shared letters: low. Private to "whole": eh. Private to "wold": d.

"whole" · 5 letters · shape CCVCV · "wold" · 4 letters · shape CVCC

Known mistypes of this pair

whole ← hwole · whhole · whloe · whoel · wholle · wohle · wwhole
wold ← owld · wlod · wodl · woldd · wolld · wwold

Frequency comparison

whole#333

wold#42,997

Source: FrequencyWords open word-frequency list

Frequently Asked Questions

Can "whole" and "wold" be used interchangeably?

No - they are not even the same part of speech. "whole" is an adjective and "wold" a noun, so a sentence built for one is usually ungrammatical with the other.

Which is more common, "whole" or "wold"?

"whole" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #333 in our English list, against #42,997 for "wold". That is a wide gap, so in ordinary text the rarer spelling is the one worth double-checking.

Remembering whole vs wold

The fastest way to pick the right one every time.

Check the role first: if you need an adjective, it's “whole”; for a noun, it's “wold”.
See each word in full, definition, IPA, etymology and its other confusables. Full “whole” entry
Browse more pairs most likely to be confused. Most confusable