forehold
/ˈfɔːhəʊld/
"forehold" is a 8-letter English headword indexed on PlainSpell.
The verdict
“forehold” is uncommon English (outside the top frequency list), classed as a noun. The kind of spelling people second-guess.
- Unranked
- below top-frequency English
- 8
- letters
According to Wiktionary data (CC BY-SA, analyzed September 3, 2026) - The forward or front part of the hold of a ship.
Corpus desk
Index EN-forehold · forehold · English
forehold · unranked · 0 variants · 0 confusables
- FREQ-UNRANKED Unranked
- LEN-LONG 8 letters
- VOW-3 3 vowels
- CONFUS-0 No pairs
- VAR-0 0 variants
- BOOK-THIN "F" thin
- PHOTO-UNK Peer pending
Read with this headword: Spelling guide for this pattern
Desk codes from Wiktionary headword shape, FrequencyWords rank tier, confusable-pair count, generated misspelling depth, letter-cohort book size, and photo-finish peer. Not a difficulty grade.
| Property | Value |
|---|---|
| Headword | forehold |
| Language | English |
| Part of speech | Noun |
| IPA | /ˈfɔːhəʊld/ |
| Letters | 8 |
| Misspellings tracked | 0 |
| Confusable pairs | 0 |
| Source | Wiktionary (kaikki.org) |
Long-tail rank of “forehold” in English
Rare enough to double-check
forehold is uncommon English outside the top frequency list, classed as anoun, transcribed /ˈfɔːhəʊld/. Rarity is why readers land here mid-draft. Gloss: "The forward or front part of the hold of a ship.".
forehold doesn't appear in our generated misspelling index, and the word's spelling is regular enough that our generator found nothing worth flagging. This entry stands alone in our confusable dataset, since its spelling is unusual enough that it doesn't cluster with a lookalike.
Etymologically, the entry records: From fore- (prefix meaning ‘positioned at or near the front’) + hold (“the cargo area of an aircraft or ship”). Hold is a variant of hole (influenced by hold (verb)), from Middle English hole, hol (“perforation, hole; cave, cavern; hiding place, shelter; ce… The correct English form is forehold, spelled F-O-R-E-H-O-L-D.
Definition
- 1The forward or front part of the hold of a ship.
Recorded use
Wiktionary examplesThese source excerpts show how forehold appears in context. They illustrate usage; the definition above remains the entry’s reference meaning.
It freezes very hard, and we find it extreamly cold. The next Day, the ſame Weather, we went aboard, and ſcuttled for Flower in the Forehold. The 25th, little Wind at N.E. and froſty Weather, went aboard again, and got out of the Forehold eight Barrels of Flower, one Cask of Peaſe, with ſome Brandy and Wine.
At nine in the evening, the Rippon, which ſtill remained aground, ran her larboard guns over the ſtarboard ſide, ſtarted thirty tun of water in the forehold, to lighten her forward, and employed all her boats in endeavouring to tow off: […]
Etymology
From fore- (prefix meaning ‘positioned at or near the front’) + hold (“the cargo area of an aircraft or ship”). Hold is a variant of hole (influenced by hold (verb)), from Middle English hole, hol (“perforation, hole; cave, cavern; hiding place, shelter; cell, compartment”), from Old English hol (“hole (in the ground)”), from Proto-West Germanic *hol (“hollow”), from Proto-Germanic *hulą (“depression, hollow; hole”), from Proto-Germanic *hulaz (“hollow”); further etymology uncertain, possibly either from Proto-Indo-European *ḱel- (“to cover; to conceal, hide”) or *ḱewh₁- (“to be strong; to swell”).
Definitions, pronunciation, and etymology for this entry are drawn from Wiktionary via the kaikki.org structured extract (CC BY-SA). See the methodology for how each field is sourced and updated.