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holds

Definition, pronunciation, etymology, and usage for the English word. Free spelling reference powered by Wiktionary.

Letters

5 characters

Language

English

word origin

Source

Wiktionary

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Detailed reference entry for the English word "holds", 5-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 "holds" 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 "holds" for academic writing, checking homophone confusion, or exploring etymological origins, this page provides a citation-backed, free reference that requires no sign-up.

holds is aEnglishnoun. It means: plural of hold Pronounced /həʊldz/. It ranks #2,488 in English word frequency. Often confused with hos and holy.

Key facts for holds
PropertyValue
Headwordholds
LanguageEnglish
Part of speechNoun
IPA/həʊldz/
Letters5
Frequency rank#2,488
Misspellings tracked8
Confusable pairs20
SourceWiktionary (kaikki.org)

Frequency rank visualization

Position of holds in English word frequency (lower rank = more common)

Source: Wordfreq corpus

Spelling & Dictionary Insight

The English entry for holds is 5 letters long, classified as anoun, and transcribed in the International Phonetic Alphabet as /həʊldz/. Corpus data places it at rank #2,488 in overall English word frequency, indicating it appears regularly in written and spoken text.The dominant gloss from Wiktionary reads: "plural of hold".

Our Hunspell-derived misspelling index lists 8 documented wrong-spelling variants for holds, with forms such as "hholds", "hlods", and "hodls". 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, "hos", "holy", "hole", and more, where similar look or sound leads writers to substitute one word for another in context.

No explicit etymology string is stored for this entry, so spelling patterns must be inferred from the word's phoneme-to-grapheme mapping rather than from a documented borrowing chain. For readers arriving here from a spelling check, the authoritative guidance is: the correct English form is holds, spelled H-O-L-D-S, and any other sequence of those letters, regardless of how natural it feels, is a misspelling in standard orthography.

Definition

  1. 1
    plural of hold

Common misspellings

Also misspelled as: hholds,hlods,hodls,holdds,holdss,hollds,holsd,ohlds

Misspelling Pattern Breakdown

Relative frequency of common misspelling types for holds

Misspelling Variants of "holds"

hholds6hlods5hodls5holdds6holdss6hollds6holsd5ohlds5
Misspelling Variants of "holds"

Frequency rank: #2,488 in English

Frequently Asked Questions

How do you spell "holds"?
"holds" is spelled H-O-L-D-S. The IPA pronunciation is /həʊldz/.
What does "holds" mean?
As a noun, "holds" means: plural of hold
What words are commonly confused with "holds"?
"holds" is commonly confused with "hos", "holy", "hole". These words look or sound similar but have different meanings. PlainSpell provides detailed comparisons for each pair.
How do you pronounce "holds"?
The IPA (International Phonetic Alphabet) transcription for "holds" is /həʊldz/. Click the speaker icon on the pronunciation badge above to hear it spoken aloud where audio is available.
What language does "holds" come from?
"holds" is a English word. PlainSpell covers definitions, pronunciations, and spelling data across English, Spanish, Portuguese, French, and German.
Is PlainSpell free to use?
Yes, PlainSpell is a completely free word reference. You can look up definitions, pronunciations, confusable pairs, homophones, and spelling corrections across 5 languages without any sign-up or subscription.

Nearby English words

Other entries that begin with the letter H in our English index:

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Data Source: Wiktionary (via kaikki.org), licensed under CC BY-SA & GFDL. Frequency data from Wordfreq. Misspellings derived from Hunspell dictionaries.