hooley
/ˈhuːli/
"hooley" is a 6-letter English headword indexed on PlainSpell.
The verdict
“hooley” is uncommon English (frequency #79,596 among 23,837 “H” headwords), classed as a noun. The kind of spelling people second-guess.
- #79,596
- frequency rank, English
- 23,837
- “H” headwords
According to Wiktionary data (CC BY-SA, analyzed May 6, 2026) - A noisy celebration or party; also, an evening of traditional music and dance.
| Property | Value |
|---|---|
| Headword | hooley |
| Language | English |
| Part of speech | Noun |
| IPA | /ˈhuːli/ |
| Letters | 6 |
| Frequency rank | #79,596 |
| Misspellings tracked | 0 |
| Confusable pairs | 0 |
| Source | Wiktionary (kaikki.org) |
Where “hooley” sits in English frequency
Rare enough to double-check
hooley is uncommon English at frequency #79,596 among 23,837 “H” headwords, classed as anoun, transcribed /ˈhuːli/. Rarity is why readers land here mid-draft. 2 senses are on record.
hooley doesn't appear in our generated misspelling index, which points to an orthography that plays by predictable English rules. No confusable counterpart is on file for this word, which usually means its spelling is distinct enough that readers don't reach for a similar-looking word instead.
Etymologically, the entry records: The etymology of sense 1 (“noisy celebration or party”) is unknown. Sense 2 (“strong wind”) is possibly from one of the following: * Borrowed from Orkney Scots hool(an) (“strong wind”) + English -ie (diminutive suffix). Hoolan is derived from Norn (unattest… The correct English form is hooley, spelled H-O-O-L-E-Y.
Definition
- 1A noisy celebration or party; also, an evening of traditional music and dance.
- 2Chiefly in the form to blow a hooley: a strong wind; a gale.
Etymology
The etymology of sense 1 (“noisy celebration or party”) is unknown. Sense 2 (“strong wind”) is possibly from one of the following: * Borrowed from Orkney Scots hool(an) (“strong wind”) + English -ie (diminutive suffix). Hoolan is derived from Norn (unattested), from Old Norse ýlun (“howling, wailing”), from ýla (“to howl”) (ultimately onomatopoeic) + -un (suffix forming nouns). * From sense 1.
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 “hooley”
The practical upshot for anyone who landed here from a spell-check.
- The one correct English spelling is H-O-O-L-E-Y - every other letter order is a misspelling in standard orthography.
- Say it as /ˈhuːli/ (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.