hole

/həʊl/

//həʊl// noun

By · According to Wiktionary data (CC BY-SA) ·

"hole" is a 4-letter English headword indexed on PlainSpell.

The verdict

“hole” has 5 generated spelling variants in the English index at frequency #2,206. The variants make it a useful spelling check.

#2,206
frequency rank, English
2,646
“H” headwords
5
tracked misspellings
20
confusable pairs

According to Wiktionary data (CC BY-SA, analyzed September 3, 2026) - A hollow place or cavity; an excavation; a pit; a dent; a depression; a fissure.

Corpus desk

Index EN-hole · hole · English

hole · rank #2,206 · 5 variants · 20 confusables

  • FREQ-COMMON #2,206
  • LEN-MID 4 letters
  • VOW-2 2 vowels
  • CONFUS-HIGH 20 pairs
  • VAR-MID 5 variants
  • BOOK-MID 2,646
  • PHOTO-FINISH guns

Nearest frequency peer: guns (-1 rank slots)

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.

Frequency neighbourhood for “hole”

Lower corpus rank = more everyday usage (inverted bar length for readability)

corpus weight

What this shows Bars show where “hole” sits against the nearest ranked English headwords in the FrequencyWords band, not a reprint of letter-browse containment.

Source FrequencyWords open word-frequency list As of September 3, 2026

Visual similarity to commonly confused words

How many letter changes separate each confused pair (Levenshtein distance, normalized).

hole vs how
50% similar
hole vs hot
50% similar
hole vs hop
50% similar

Source: PlainSpell confusable corpus (Wiktionary, CC BY-SA).

Key facts for hole
PropertyValue
Headwordhole
LanguageEnglish
Part of speechNoun
IPA/həʊl/
Letters4
Frequency rank#2,206
Misspellings tracked5
Confusable pairs20
SourceWiktionary (kaikki.org)

Where “hole” sits in English frequency

This scale runs from the tiny cluster of words that carry ordinary speech (left) to the long tail of words almost nobody reaches for (right).holelands here:

#1#100#1K#10K#100K
← used constantlyrarely used →

Scale is logarithmic (each tick is 10× rarer). Same rarity band neighbours include “guns” (#2,205), “holiday” (#2,207), “fox” (#2,204). Source: FrequencyWords open word-frequency list.

A misspelling magnet

The generator records 5 spelling variants around hole (IPA /həʊl/), anoun. Corpus frequency is #2,206 among 2,646 “H” headwords. Wiktionary lists 21 senses, so context still picks the gloss.

Our generated misspelling index lists 5 likely wrong-spelling variants for hole, with forms such as "hhole", "hloe", and "hoel". Each of these forms differs from the correct spelling by one small edit: a doubled letter, a dropped silent letter, or a substituted vowel. 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: Inherited from Middle English hole, hol, from Old English hol (“orifice, hollow place, cavity”), from Proto-West Germanic *hol (“hole”), from Proto-Germanic *hulą (“hollow space, cavity”), noun derivative of Proto-Germanic *hulaz (“hollow”), which is of unc… The correct English form is hole, spelled H-O-L-E.

Definition

  1. 1
    A hollow place or cavity; an excavation; a pit; a dent; a depression; a fissure.
  2. 2
    An opening that goes all the way through a solid body, a fabric, etc.; a perforation; a rent.
  3. 3
    In games.
  4. 4
    In games.
  5. 5
    In games.
  6. 6
    In games.
  7. 7
    In games.
  8. 8
    In games.
  9. 9
    An excavation pit or trench.
  10. 10
    A weakness; a flaw or ambiguity.
  11. 11
    In semiconductors, a lack of an electron in an occupied band behaving like a positively charged particle.
  12. 12
    A security vulnerability in software which can be taken advantage of by an exploit.
  13. 13
    A person's mouth.
  14. 14
    Any bodily orifice, in particular the anus.
  15. 15
    A vagina.
  16. 16
    Solitary confinement, a high-security prison cell often used as punishment.
  17. 17
    An undesirable place to live or visit.
  18. 18
    Difficulty, in particular, debt.
  19. 19
    A chordless cycle in a graph.
  20. 20
    A passing loop; a siding provided for trains traveling in opposite directions on a single-track line to pass each other.
  21. 21
    A mountain valley.

Recorded use

Wiktionary examples

These source excerpts show how hole appears in context. They illustrate usage; the definition above remains the entry’s reference meaning.

  1. I made a blind hole in the wall for a peg. I dug a hole and planted a tree in it.
  2. To be called into a huge sphere, and not to be seen to move in't, are the holes where eyes should be, which pitifully disaster the cheeks.

Etymology

Inherited from Middle English hole, hol, from Old English hol (“orifice, hollow place, cavity”), from Proto-West Germanic *hol (“hole”), from Proto-Germanic *hulą (“hollow space, cavity”), noun derivative of Proto-Germanic *hulaz (“hollow”), which is of uncertain ultimate origin. Related to hollow. Cognate with Dutch, Faroese, and Icelandic hol (“hole”), Danish hul (“hole”), Faroese, Icelandic, and Norn hola (“hole”), Norwegian Bokmål hol (“depression, hole, cavern”), Swedish hål (“hole”), French houle (“swell of water”). Compare unrelated Finnish kolo (“hole”).

Synonyms

administrative segregationad-segblockboxcoolerhotboxlockdownpoundSCUsecurity housing unitSHUspecial handling unithole

This word in other languages

agujero(Español)creux(Français)Loch(Deutsch)buraco(Português)

Common misspellings

Also misspelled as:

  • hhole
  • hloe
  • hoel
  • holle
  • ohle

Misspelling Pattern Breakdown

How far each generated variant is from the correct spelling of hole - measured in single-character edits (insert, delete, or substitute a letter). Larger bars are easier to catch; one-edit slips are the sneakiest.

hhole1hloe2hoel2holle1ohle2
Edit distance from "hole"

Definitions, pronunciation, and etymology for this entry are drawn from Wiktionary via the kaikki.org structured extract (CC BY-SA); frequency ordering uses the FrequencyWords open word-frequency list (2018 English corpus, MIT). See the methodology for how each field is sourced and updated.

Frequently Asked Questions

How do you spell "hole"?
"hole" is spelled H-O-L-E. The IPA pronunciation is /həʊl/.
What does "hole" mean?
As a noun, "hole" means: A hollow place or cavity; an excavation; a pit; a dent; a depression; a fissure.
What words are commonly confused with "hole"?
"hole" is commonly confused with "how", "hot", "hop". These words look or sound similar but have different meanings. PlainSpell provides detailed comparisons for each pair.
How do you pronounce "hole"?
The IPA (International Phonetic Alphabet) transcription for "hole" is /həʊl/. Click the speaker icon on the pronunciation badge above to hear it spoken aloud where audio is available.
What is the origin of the word "hole"?
Inherited from Middle English hole, hol, from Old English hol (“orifice, hollow place, cavity”), from Proto-West Germanic *hol (“hole”), from Proto-Germanic *hulą (“hollow space, cavity”), noun derivative of Proto-Germanic *hulaz (“hollow”), which... See the full etymology section above for more details.
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.

Similar English words by spelling shape

Same letter count and similar misspelling depth for "hole", not the corpus desk frequency band.

Same letter count

Frequency-ranked English headwords with 4 letters (nearest by frequency rank).

guns#2,205milk#2,223pack#2,224snow#2,231

Similar misspelling depth

Headwords with a similar count of attested misspellings (5 here; floor ≥5).

cook5 variantscute5 variantsfake5 variantsquiet5 variants

What to do next

You've looked up "hole". Here's where to go from here.

  • "hole" maps to 20 confusable pairs in this vintage; the highest-scored is "how". View pair
  • 5 edit-distance misspelling variants are generated for spell-check research on this headword. See variants
  • Usage frequency rank #2,206 among English headwords in this corpus. Corpus statistics
  • Browse more English words in the "H" letter cohort. H–Z browse
  • PlainSpell rotates a curated Word of the Day from the English corpus, a passive way to discover vocabulary. Word of the Day

PlainSpell is a reference corpus, not spelling advice. Verify unusual forms in context.

Data Source

Wiktionary (via kaikki.org), licensed under CC BY-SA & GFDL. Word ordering uses an open word-frequency list; misspelling variants are generated by edit-distance from the correct headword.

Source: Wiktionary (via kaikki.org) Structured Wiktionary extract

Source: FrequencyWords open word-frequency list