# holt

> English word · Noun · IPA /hɒlt/ · frequency rank #11,721

## Definitions
1. A small piece of woodland or a woody hill; a copse.
2. The lair of an animal, especially of an otter.

## Etymology
From Middle English holt, from Old English holt (“forest, wood, grove, thicket; wood, timber”), from Proto-West Germanic *holt, from Proto-Germanic *hultą (“wood”), from Proto-Indo-European *kald-, *klād- (“timber, log”), from Proto-Indo-European *kola-, *klā- (“to beat, hew, break, destroy, kill”).
Cognate with Scots holt (“a wood, copse, thicket”), North Frisian holt (“wood, timber”), West Frisian hout (“timber, wood”), Dutch hout (“wood, timber”), German Holz (“wood”), Icelandic holt (“woodland, hillock”), Old Irish caill (“forest, wood, woodland”), Ancient Greek κλάδος (kládos, “branch, shoot, twig”), Slovene kol ("stake"), Albanian shul (“door latch”). Doublet of hout.

## Easily confused with
- **how** (https://plainspell.com/en/vs/holt-vs-how)
- **hot** (https://plainspell.com/en/vs/holt-vs-hot)
- **hop** (https://plainspell.com/en/vs/holt-vs-hop)
- **hon** (https://plainspell.com/en/vs/holt-vs-hon)
- **hut** (https://plainspell.com/en/vs/holt-vs-hut)
- **hoo** (https://plainspell.com/en/vs/holt-vs-hoo)
- **Hou** (https://plainspell.com/en/vs/holt-vs-hou)
- **hoy** (https://plainspell.com/en/vs/holt-vs-hoy)
- **hos** (https://plainspell.com/en/vs/holt-vs-hos)
- **Hom** (https://plainspell.com/en/vs/holt-vs-hom)
- **HRT** (https://plainspell.com/en/vs/holt-vs-hrt)
- **hor** (https://plainspell.com/en/vs/holt-vs-hor)
- **HOV** (https://plainspell.com/en/vs/holt-vs-hov)
- **home** (https://plainspell.com/en/vs/holt-vs-home)
- **hope** (https://plainspell.com/en/vs/holt-vs-hope)
- **hour** (https://plainspell.com/en/vs/holt-vs-hour)
- **hurt** (https://plainspell.com/en/vs/holt-vs-hurt)
- **holy** (https://plainspell.com/en/vs/holt-vs-holy)
- **host** (https://plainspell.com/en/vs/holt-vs-host)
- **hong** (https://plainspell.com/en/vs/holt-vs-hong)

## Common misspellings (6)
`hholt`, `hlot`, `hollt`, `holtt`, `hotl`, `ohlt`

## Source
Compiled from Wiktionary via kaikki.org (CC BY-SA). Data vintage: 2026-05-06.
Canonical page: https://plainspell.com/en/word/holt