hold
Definition, pronunciation, etymology, and usage for the English word. Free spelling reference powered by Wiktionary.
Letters
4 characters
Language
English
word origin
Source
Wiktionary
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Detailed reference entry for the English word "hold", 4-letters, with pronunciation in International Phonetic Alphabet notation, etymology traced through Germanic and Romance roots where applicable, common misspelling variants catalogued from Hunspell error dictionaries, and usage frequency ranked against the top 100,000 English words in the Wordfreq corpus. PlainSpell covers English, Spanish, Portuguese, French, and German spelling with confusable-pair detection that highlights visually and phonetically similar words. This entry for "hold" includes synonyms, antonyms, homophones, and cross-language translation pointers sourced from Wiktionary via the kaikki.org extract. Whether you are verifying the correct spelling of "hold" for academic writing, checking homophone confusion, or exploring etymological origins, this page provides a citation-backed, free reference that requires no sign-up.
hold is aEnglishverb. It means: To grasp or grip. Pronounced /həʊld/. It ranks #655 in English word frequency. Often confused with how and hot.
| Property | Value |
|---|---|
| Headword | hold |
| Language | English |
| Part of speech | Verb |
| IPA | /həʊld/ |
| Letters | 4 |
| Frequency rank | #655 |
| Misspellings tracked | 6 |
| Confusable pairs | 20 |
| Source | Wiktionary (kaikki.org) |
Frequency rank visualization
Spelling & Dictionary Insight
The English entry for hold is 4 letters long, classified as averb, and transcribed in the International Phonetic Alphabet as /həʊld/. Corpus data places it at rank #655 in overall English word frequency, putting it firmly in the everyday core of the language.Wiktionary records 24 distinct senses for this headword, so context determines which meaning a reader should apply.
Our Hunspell-derived misspelling index lists 6 documented wrong-spelling variants for hold, with forms such as "hhold", "hlod", and "hodl". Each variant represents a distinct typo pattern that appears often enough in corpora to be worth flagging, typically a doubled-consonant error, a silent-letter drop, or a vowel substitution.It also participates in 20 confusable-pair relationships, "how", "hot", "hop", and more, where similar look or sound leads writers to substitute one word for another in context.
Etymologically, the entry records: Derived from Middle English holden, derived from Old English healdan, derived from Proto-West Germanic *haldan, derived from Proto-Germanic *haldaną (“to tend, herd”), maybe derived from Proto-Indo-European *kel- (“to drive”). Doublet of halt. Cognates *Wes… Root origin matters for spelling because borrowed morphemes (Greek, Latin, Old French, Old English) carry their source-language orthographic conventions into modern English, which is why historical etymology is often the cleanest predictor of whether a cluster like "-ough", "-eau", or "-tion" will appear. For readers arriving here from a spelling check, the authoritative guidance is: the correct English form is hold, spelled H-O-L-D, and any other sequence of those letters, regardless of how natural it feels, is a misspelling in standard orthography.
Definition
- 1To grasp or grip.
- 2To contain or store.
- 3To maintain or keep to a position or state.
- 4To maintain or keep to a position or state.
- 5To maintain or keep to a position or state.
- 6To maintain or keep to a position or state.
- 7To maintain or keep to a position or state.
- 8To maintain or keep to a position or state.
- 9To maintain or keep to a position or state.
- 10To maintain or keep to a position or state.
- 11To maintain or keep to a position or state.
- 12To maintain or keep to a position or state.
- 13To maintain or keep to a position or state.
- 14To maintain or keep to particular opinions, promises, actions.
- 15To maintain or keep to particular opinions, promises, actions.
- 16To maintain or keep to particular opinions, promises, actions.
- 17To maintain or keep to particular opinions, promises, actions.
- 18To maintain or keep to particular opinions, promises, actions.
- 19To win one's own service game.
- 20To take place, to occur.
- 21To organise an event or meeting (usually in passive voice).
- 22To derive right or title.
- 23In a food or drink order at an informal restaurant etc., requesting that a component normally included in that order be omitted.
- 24To be in possession of illicit drugs for sale.
Etymology
Derived from Middle English holden, derived from Old English healdan, derived from Proto-West Germanic *haldan, derived from Proto-Germanic *haldaną (“to tend, herd”), maybe derived from Proto-Indo-European *kel- (“to drive”). Doublet of halt. Cognates *West Frisian hâlde *Low German holden, holen *Dutch houden *German halten *Danish *Norwegian Bokmål holde *Norwegian Nynorsk halda. Compare Latin celer (“quick”), Tocharian B käl- (“to goad, drive”), Ancient Greek κέλλω (kéllō, “to drive”), Sanskrit कलयति (kalayati, “to impel”).
Antonyms
This word in other languages
Common misspellings
Also misspelled as: hhold,hlod,hodl,holdd,holld,ohld
Misspelling Pattern Breakdown
Relative frequency of common misspelling types for hold
Misspelling Variants of "hold"
Frequency rank: #655 in English
Frequently Asked Questions
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Nearby English words
Other entries that begin with the letter H in our English index: