holey
/ˈhəʊl.li/
"holey" is a 5-letter English headword indexed on PlainSpell.
The verdict
“holey” is uncommon English (frequency #81,408 among 23,837 “H” headwords), classed as an adjective. The kind of spelling people second-guess.
- #81,408
- frequency rank, English
- 23,837
- “H” headwords
According to Wiktionary data (CC BY-SA, analyzed May 6, 2026) - Having, or being full of, holes.
| Property | Value |
|---|---|
| Headword | holey |
| Language | English |
| Part of speech | Adjective |
| IPA | /ˈhəʊl.li/ |
| Letters | 5 |
| Frequency rank | #81,408 |
| Misspellings tracked | 0 |
| Confusable pairs | 0 |
| Source | Wiktionary (kaikki.org) |
Where “holey” sits in English frequency
Rare enough to double-check
holey is uncommon English at frequency #81,408 among 23,837 “H” headwords, classed as anadjective, transcribed /ˈhəʊl.li/. Rarity is why readers land here mid-draft. Gloss: "Having, or being full of, holes.".
Our edit-distance generator produced no likely misspellings for holey, suggesting the orthography follows predictable English patterns. It is not paired with a close-neighbour confusable in our dataset, which usually means its spelling is distinct enough that readers don't reach for a similar-looking word instead.
Etymologically, the entry records: From Middle English holy, holi, holly, holli (“holey, spongy, hollow”); equivalent to hole + -y. The e was inserted in Modern English to distinguish the word from holy (“hallowed, sacred”). The correct English form is holey, spelled H-O-L-E-Y.
Definition
- 1Having, or being full of, holes.
Etymology
From Middle English holy, holi, holly, holli (“holey, spongy, hollow”); equivalent to hole + -y. The e was inserted in Modern English to distinguish the word from holy (“hallowed, sacred”).
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); 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
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Using “holey”
The practical upshot for anyone who landed here from a spell-check.
- The one correct English spelling is H-O-L-E-Y - every other letter order is a misspelling in standard orthography.
- Say it as /ˈhəʊl.li/ (IPA); tap the speaker on the pronunciation badge to hear it where audio exists.
- Browse more English words and confusable pairs in the same reference. English words
Other uncommon English words near this rank
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.