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PlainSpell

hoe

/hoʊ/noun, verb

hoe is spelled H-O-E: 3 letters and one syllable. It appears 1.8 times per million words in written English, the 20,906th most frequent word form (wordfreq, 2021 data). People search “ho vs hoe” about 1,900 times a month (Google, United States). As a noun, hoe means “An agricultural and horticultural hand tool consisting of a long handle with a flat blade fixed perpendicular to it at the end, used for digging rows…” (English Wiktionary, September 2026). The plural of hoe is hoes.

How many letters and syllables are in hoe?

Letters3: H-O-E
Syllables1 (from its American pronunciation)
In writing1.8 times per million words; the 20,906th most frequent word form
Wrong spellings searchednone measured in search
Pairs people search
Sounds like
Rhymes with

Sources: letters and syllables from the English Wiktionary's hyphenation or pronunciation and the CMU Pronouncing Dictionary; written frequency: wordfreq 3.1 (a 2021 snapshot of Wikipedia, subtitles, news, books, web text and social media); Bing searches in the United States: the average month from September 2025 to August 2026 (Microsoft Advertising keyword data through DataForSEO, read September 30, 2026); rhymes and same-letter words are computed by PlainSpell from its own word list.

How common is hoe?

Hoe appears 1.8 times per million words in written English, the 20,906th most frequent word form in the list.

Source: written frequency: wordfreq 3.1 (a 2021 snapshot of Wikipedia, subtitles, news, books, web text and social media).

How do you pronounce hoe?

  • UK /həʊ/
  • US /hoʊ/
  • Australia /həʉ/

Hoe has one syllable (counted from its American pronunciation in the CMU Pronouncing Dictionary).

Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract). Recordings: En-au-hoe.ogg, Wikimedia Commons (author and licence on each file's page).

Words people confuse with hoe

Word pairs people search, with the monthly searches for “a vs b” (G: Google, B: Bing, United States).

ho vs hoe1,900 G
hoe vs whore20 B

Sounds like: ho (Wiktionary's homophone list; some hold only in some accents).

Also written: ho, hough.

Sources: Google and Bing searches (September 2025 to August 2026, through DataForSEO); English Wiktionary (homophones, alternative spellings).

What rhymes with hoe?

The 12 most written words on PlainSpell end in the same sounds as hoe from its last stressed vowel (/oʊ/):

Computed by PlainSpell from the pronunciations in the English Wiktionary (dump of September 2, 2026): a rhyme shares every sound from the last stressed vowel to the end; ordered by written frequency (wordfreq 3.1).

Forms of hoe

  • hoes plural, present, singular, he/she/it
  • hoeing participle, present
  • hoed participle, past
  • ho
  • 'ho
  • hough

Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract).

What does hoe mean?

The meanings the English Wiktionary records, quoted as written there (source below).

noun

  1. 1

    An agricultural and horticultural hand tool consisting of a long handle with a flat blade fixed perpendicular to it at the end, used for digging rows or removing weeds by hand.

    For their organic row crops, they do the weeding with hoes. They get in there often, but it goes fast, and the weeds never get ahead.

  2. 2

    Any of several implements or machines usually called by their more specific names, for example, backhoe.

    The grading is on hold. In the meantime, get that hoe over here and work on this utility trench. [Instructions issued to a worker who will operate a backhoe]

  3. 3

    A piece of land that juts out towards the sea; a promontory.

  4. 4

    The horned or piked dogfish, Squalus acanthias.

  5. 5

    derogatoryslangAlternative spelling of ho (“whore, prostitute”).

verb

  1. 1

    To cut, dig, scrape, turn, arrange, or clean, with this tool.

    to hoe the earth in a garden

  2. 2

    To clear from weeds, or to loosen or arrange the earth about, with a hoe.

    to hoe corn

  3. 3

    USslangAlternative spelling of ho (“to prostitute”).

Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract).

Hoe in Spanish, French, German and Portuguese

LanguageWords
Frenchbinette, houe (agricultural tool), houer (to use the gardening tool)
GermanHacke (agricultural tool), hacken (to use the gardening tool)
Portugueseenxada, facholo (agricultural tool), enxadar (to use the gardening tool)
Spanishazada, azadón, lampa (agricultural tool), azadonar, cavar (to use the gardening tool)

Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract). Translations are Wiktionary's, by sense; a linked word has its own PlainSpell page.

Where does hoe come from?

From Middle English howe, from Anglo-Norman houe, from Frankish *hauwā, derivative of Frankish *hauwan (“to hew”), from Proto-Germanic *hawwaną. More at hew.

Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract).

What to look up after hoe