hold against
"hold-against" is a 11-letter English headword indexed on PlainSpell.
The verdict
“hold against” is uncommon English (outside the top frequency list), classed as a verb. The kind of spelling people second-guess.
- Unranked
- below top-frequency English
- 12
- letters
According to Wiktionary data (CC BY-SA, analyzed September 3, 2026) - To think less of (someone) for (something they have done).
Corpus desk
Index EN-hold-against · hold against · English
hold against · unranked · 0 variants · 0 confusables
- FREQ-UNRANKED Unranked
- LEN-MEGA 12 letters
- VOW-4 4 vowels
- CONFUS-0 No pairs
- VAR-0 0 variants
- BOOK-THIN "H" 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 | hold against |
| Language | English |
| Part of speech | Verb |
| Letters | 12 |
| Misspellings tracked | 0 |
| Confusable pairs | 0 |
| Source | Wiktionary (kaikki.org) |
Long-tail rank of “hold against” in English
Rare enough to double-check
hold against is uncommon English outside the top frequency list, classed as averb. Rarity is why readers land here mid-draft. Gloss: "To think less of (someone) for (something they have done).".
Zero misspellings are on record for hold against in our index, since its letter pattern doesn't lend itself to common typo substitutions. This entry stands alone in our confusable dataset, a sign it's visually distinctive enough not to be mixed up with another word.
This headword's origin isn't recorded in our source data, so its spelling is best read as a straightforward mapping from sound to letter. The correct English form is hold against, spelled H-O-L-D- -A-G-A-I-N-S-T.
Definition
- 1To think less of (someone) for (something they have done).
Recorded use
Wiktionary examplesThese source excerpts show how hold against appears in context. They illustrate usage; the definition above remains the entry’s reference meaning.
He was awful to me when we were young, but I don't hold that against him. We were children then.
Gedeon Van Rompay had the dubious distinction of being the only Site employee personally hired by Edwin Falkirk, former All Sections Chief and perennial piece of human trash. Lillian had found it easy not to hold this against the man, but only because there were so many other odious things about him to choose from. He was misogynist, he was chauvinistic,…
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.