hold on
"hold-on" is a 6-letter English headword indexed on PlainSpell.
The verdict
“hold on” is uncommon English (outside the top frequency list), classed as a verb. The kind of spelling people second-guess.
- Unranked
- below top-frequency English
- 7
- letters
According to Wiktionary data (CC BY-SA, analyzed September 3, 2026) - To grasp or grip firmly.
Corpus desk
Index EN-hold-on · hold on · English
hold on · unranked · 0 variants · 0 confusables
- FREQ-UNRANKED Unranked
- LEN-LONG 7 letters
- VOW-2 2 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 on |
| Language | English |
| Part of speech | Verb |
| Letters | 7 |
| Misspellings tracked | 0 |
| Confusable pairs | 0 |
| Source | Wiktionary (kaikki.org) |
Long-tail rank of “hold on” in English
Rare enough to double-check
hold on is uncommon English outside the top frequency list, classed as averb. Rarity is why readers land here mid-draft. 6 senses are on record.
No misspelling variants are generated for hold on in our index, since its letter pattern doesn't lend itself to common typo substitutions. Our dataset records no confusable match here, a sign it's visually distinctive enough not to be mixed up with another word.
This entry's etymology isn't recorded, so spelling patterns must be inferred from the word's phoneme-to-grapheme mapping rather than from a documented borrowing chain. The correct English form is hold on, spelled H-O-L-D- -O-N.
Definition
- 1To grasp or grip firmly.
- 2To keep; to store something for someone.
- 3To retain an advantage.
- 4Wait a short while.
- 5To remain loyal.
- 6To persist.
Recorded use
Wiktionary examplesThese source excerpts show how hold on appears in context. They illustrate usage; the definition above remains the entry’s reference meaning.
Hold on tightly to the railing.
Hold on to my umbrella while I ride the roller coaster.
This word in other languages
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.