holy
/ˈhəʊli/
"holy" is a 4-letter English headword indexed on PlainSpell.
The verdict
“holy” is a regularly-used English word, ranked #1,396 in English word frequency and used as an adjective.
- #1,396
- frequency rank, English
- 4
- letters
- 5
- tracked misspellings
- 20
- confusable pairs
According to Wiktionary data (CC BY-SA, analyzed May 6, 2026) - Dedicated to a religious purpose or a god.
Visual similarity to commonly confused words
How many letter changes separate each confused pair (Levenshtein distance, normalized).
Source: PlainSpell confusable corpus (Wiktionary, CC BY-SA).
| Property | Value |
|---|---|
| Headword | holy |
| Language | English |
| Part of speech | Adjective |
| IPA | /ˈhəʊli/ |
| Letters | 4 |
| Frequency rank | #1,396 |
| Misspellings tracked | 5 |
| Confusable pairs | 20 |
| Source | Wiktionary (kaikki.org) |
Where “holy” sits in English frequency
Spelling & Dictionary Insight
The English entry for holy is 4 letters long, classified as an adjective, and transcribed in the International Phonetic Alphabet as /ˈhəʊli/. Corpus data places it at rank #1,396 in overall English word frequency, indicating it appears regularly in written and spoken text. Wiktionary records 6 distinct senses for this headword, so context determines which meaning a reader should apply.
Our generated misspelling index lists 5 likely wrong-spelling variants for holy, with forms such as "hholy", "hloy", and "holyy". Every one of these variants traces to a single-character edit -- an added or dropped letter, a swapped consonant, or a vowel swap -- the kind of slip a spell-checker is built to catch. 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 holi, hali, from Old English hāliġ, hāleġ (“holy, consecrated, sacred, venerated, godly, saintly, ecclesiastical, pacific, tame”), from Proto-West Germanic *hailag, from Proto-Germanic *hailagaz (“holy, bringing health”), from … The correct English form is holy, spelled H-O-L-Y.
Definition
- 1Dedicated to a religious purpose or a god.
- 2Revered in a religion.
- 3Morally perfect or flawless, or nearly so.
- 4Separated or set apart from (something unto something or someone else).
- 5Set apart or dedicated for a specific purpose, or for use by a single entity or person.
- 6Used as an intensifier in various interjections.
Etymology
Inherited from Middle English holi, hali, from Old English hāliġ, hāleġ (“holy, consecrated, sacred, venerated, godly, saintly, ecclesiastical, pacific, tame”), from Proto-West Germanic *hailag, from Proto-Germanic *hailagaz (“holy, bringing health”), from Proto-Germanic *hailaz (“healthy, whole”), from Proto-Indo-European *kéh₂ilos (“healthy, whole”), equivalent to whole + -y and a doublet of later wholly. Cognate with Scots haly (“holy”), West Frisian hillich (“holy”), Low German hillig (“holy”), Dutch heilig (“holy”), German heilig (“holy”), Danish hellig (“holy”), Swedish helig (“holy”). More at whole.
This word in other languages
Common misspellings
Also misspelled as: hholy,hloy,holyy,hoyl,ohly
Misspelling Pattern Breakdown
How far each generated variant is from the correct spelling of holy - expressed in single-character edits (insert, delete, or swap one letter). Bigger bars stand out at a glance; a one-edit slip is the hardest to catch.
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 “holy”
The practical upshot for anyone who landed here from a spell-check.
- The one correct English spelling is H-O-L-Y - every other letter order is a misspelling in standard orthography.
- Say it as /ˈhəʊli/ (IPA); tap the speaker on the pronunciation badge to hear it where audio exists.
- Don't mix it up with “how” - see the side-by-side comparison. holy vs how
- Browse more English words and confusable pairs in the same reference. English words
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.