Skip to main content
PlainSpell

hollow

UK /ˈhɒləʊ/noun, verb, adjective, adverb, interjection

hollow is spelled H-O-L-L-O-W: 6 letters and 2 syllables. It appears 8.9 times per million words in written English, the 7,672nd most frequent word form (wordfreq, 2021 data). People search “hallow vs hollow” about 480 times a month (Google, United States). As a noun, hollow means “A small valley between mountains” (English Wiktionary, September 2026). The plural of hollow is hollows.

How many letters and syllables are in hollow?

Letters6: H-O-L-L-O-W
Syllables2 (from its American pronunciation)
In writing8.9 times per million words; the 7,672nd most frequent word form
Wrong spellings searchednone measured in search
Pairs people search
Rhymes with

Sources: letters and syllables from the English Wiktionary's hyphenation or pronunciation and the CMU Pronouncing Dictionary; written frequency: wordfreq 3.1 (a 2021 snapshot of Wikipedia, subtitles, news, books, web text and social media); Bing searches in the United States: the average month from September 2025 to August 2026 (Microsoft Advertising keyword data through DataForSEO, read September 30, 2026); rhymes and same-letter words are computed by PlainSpell from its own word list.

How common is hollow?

Hollow appears 8.9 times per million words in written English, the 7,672nd most frequent word form in the list.

Source: written frequency: wordfreq 3.1 (a 2021 snapshot of Wikipedia, subtitles, news, books, web text and social media).

How do you pronounce hollow?

  • UK /ˈhɒləʊ/
  • /ˈhɒlə/
  • /ˈhɔlo/

Hollow has 2 syllables (counted from its American pronunciation in the CMU Pronouncing Dictionary).

Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract). Recordings: En-us-hollow.ogg, Wikimedia Commons (author and licence on each file's page).

Words people confuse with hollow

Word pairs people search, with the monthly searches for “a vs b” (G: Google, B: Bing, United States).

hallow vs hollow480 G
holler vs hollow30 G

Also written: hallow, holler.

Sources: Google and Bing searches (September 2025 to August 2026, through DataForSEO); English Wiktionary (homophones, alternative spellings).

What rhymes with hollow?

2 words on PlainSpell end in the same sounds as hollow from its last stressed vowel (/ɒləʊ/, British pronunciation):

Computed by PlainSpell from the pronunciations in the English Wiktionary (dump of September 2, 2026): a rhyme shares every sound from the last stressed vowel to the end; ordered by written frequency (wordfreq 3.1).

Forms of hollow

  • hollows plural, present, singular, he/she/it
  • hallow
  • hollowing participle, present
  • hollowed participle, past
  • hollower comparative
  • hollowest superlative

Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract).

What does hollow mean?

The meanings the English Wiktionary records, quoted as written there (source below).

noun

  1. 1

    A small valley between mountains.

    He built himself a cabin in a hollow high up in the Rockies.

  2. 2

    A sunken area on a surface.

    He held the chick in the hollow of his hand.

  3. 3

    An unfilled space in something solid; a cavity, natural or artificial.

    a hollow in a tree trunk

  4. 4

    A feeling of emptiness.

    a hollow in the pit of one’s stomach

verb

  1. 1

    to make a hole in something; to excavate

  2. 2

    To call or urge by shouting; to hollo.

adjective

  1. 1

    Having an empty space or cavity inside.

    a hollow tree; a hollow sphere

  2. 2

    Distant, eerie; echoing, reverberating, as if in a hollow space; dull, muffled; often low-pitched.

    He let out a hollow moan.

  3. 3

    Without substance; having no real or significant worth; meaningless.

    a hollow victory

  4. 4

    Insincere, devoid of validity; specious.

    a hollow promise

  5. 5

    Concave; gaunt; sunken.

  6. 6

    Pertaining to hollow body position

  7. 7

    Synonym of empty (“lacking between the onset of tasting and the finish”).

    While most 1974s remain hard, tannic, hollow wines lacking ripeness, flesh, and character, a number of the Graves estates did produce surprisingly spicy, interesting wines.

adverb

  1. 1

    colloquialCompletely, as part of the phrase beat hollow or beat all hollow.

interjection

  1. 1

    Alternative form of hollo.

Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract).

Hollow in Spanish, French, German and Portuguese

LanguageWords
Frenchcreux, cuvette (small valley), vide (having an empty space inside), insignifiant (without substance)
GermanMulde, Senke, kleines Tal (small valley), hohl (having an empty space inside), Höhle, Kuhle (sunken area)
Portuguesevão (without substance), depressão, caivanca (sunken area), oco (unfilled space in something solid; a cavity –…), vazio (feeling of emptiness)
Spanishahuecado (having an empty space inside), depresión, hondonada, copa, casco (sunken area), hueco (unfilled space in something solid; a cavity –…)

Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract). Translations are Wiktionary's, by sense; a linked word has its own PlainSpell page.

Where does hollow come from?

From Middle English holow, holowe, holwe, holwȝ, holgh, from Old English holh (“a hollow”), from Proto-West Germanic *holh, from Proto-Germanic *hulwiją, from Proto-Germanic *hulaz, from Proto-Indo-European *ḱel- (“to cover, hide”). Cognate with Old High German huliwa and hulwa, Middle High German hülwe. Related to hole.

Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract).

What to look up after hollow