hold one's tongue
"hold-one-s-tongue" is a 14-letter English headword indexed on PlainSpell.
The verdict
“hold one's tongue” is uncommon English (outside the top frequency list), classed as a verb. The kind of spelling people second-guess.
- Unranked
- below top-frequency English
- 17
- letters
According to Wiktionary data (CC BY-SA, analyzed September 3, 2026) - To refrain from talking about something.
Corpus desk
Index EN-hold-one-s-tongue · hold one's tongue · English
hold one's tongue · unranked · 0 variants · 0 confusables
- FREQ-UNRANKED Unranked
- LEN-MEGA 17 letters
- VOW-6 6 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 one's tongue |
| Language | English |
| Part of speech | Verb |
| Letters | 17 |
| Misspellings tracked | 0 |
| Confusable pairs | 0 |
| Source | Wiktionary (kaikki.org) |
Long-tail rank of “hold one's tongue” in English
Rare enough to double-check
hold one's tongue is uncommon English outside the top frequency list, classed as averb. Rarity is why readers land here mid-draft. Gloss: "To refrain from talking about something.".
hold one's tongue doesn't appear in our generated misspelling index, a sign its spelling follows regular English conventions. This headword has no recorded confusable partner, since its spelling is unusual enough that it doesn't cluster with a lookalike.
This headword's origin isn't recorded in our source data, so its spelling is easiest to reason about phoneme by phoneme, absent a documented history. The correct English form is hold one's tongue, spelled H-O-L-D- -O-N-E-'-S- -T-O-N-G-U-E.
Definition
- 1To refrain from talking about something.
Recorded use
Wiktionary examplesThese source excerpts show how hold one's tongue appears in context. They illustrate usage; the definition above remains the entry’s reference meaning.
I don't like his political ideas, but I will hold my tongue.
“Hold your tongue, beadle,” said the second old gentleman, when Mr. Bumble had given vent to this compound adjective. “I beg your worship’s pardon,” said Mr. Bumble, incredulous of his having heard aright,—“did your worship speak to me?” “Yes—hold your tongue.”
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.