forehold
/ˈfɔːhəʊld/
"forehold" is a 8-letter English headword indexed on PlainSpell.
The verdict
“forehold” is outside the top-ranked English vocabulary, used as a noun - the kind of word writers most often double-check.
- Unranked
- below top-frequency English
- 8
- letters
According to Wiktionary data (CC BY-SA, analyzed May 6, 2026) - The forward or front part of the hold of a ship.
| Property | Value |
|---|---|
| Headword | forehold |
| Language | English |
| Part of speech | Noun |
| IPA | /ˈfɔːhəʊld/ |
| Letters | 8 |
| Misspellings tracked | 0 |
| Confusable pairs | 0 |
| Source | Wiktionary (kaikki.org) |
Where “forehold” sits in English frequency
Spelling & Dictionary Insight
The English entry for forehold is 8 letters long, classified as a noun, and transcribed in the International Phonetic Alphabet as /ˈfɔːhəʊld/. It sits outside the most-frequent rank tiers, which is often why uncommon words generate more spelling variants per reader. The dominant gloss from Wiktionary reads: "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.
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.
Frequently Asked Questions
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Using “forehold”
The practical upshot for anyone who landed here from a spell-check.
- The one correct English spelling is F-O-R-E-H-O-L-D - every other letter order is a misspelling in standard orthography.
- Say it as /ˈfɔːhəʊld/ (IPA); tap the speaker on the pronunciation badge to hear it where audio exists.
- Browse more English words and confusable pairs in the same reference. English words
Data Source
Wiktionary (via kaikki.org), licensed under CC BY-SA & GFDL. Word ordering uses an open word-frequency list; misspelling variants are generated by edit-distance from the correct headword.