hoy
/hɔɪ/
"hoy" is a 3-letter English headword indexed on PlainSpell.
The verdict
“hoy” is a moderately-common English word, ranked #26,117 in English word frequency and used as a noun.
- #26,117
- frequency rank, English
- 3
- letters
- 20
- confusable pairs
According to Wiktionary data (CC BY-SA, analyzed May 6, 2026) - A small coaster vessel, usually sloop-rigged, used in conveying passengers and goods, or as a tender to larger vessels in port.
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 | hoy |
| Language | English |
| Part of speech | Noun |
| IPA | /hɔɪ/ |
| Letters | 3 |
| Frequency rank | #26,117 |
| Misspellings tracked | 0 |
| Confusable pairs | 20 |
| Source | Wiktionary (kaikki.org) |
Where “hoy” sits in English frequency
Spelling & Dictionary Insight
The English entry for hoy is 3 letters long, classified as a noun, and transcribed in the International Phonetic Alphabet as /hɔɪ/. Corpus data places it at rank #26,117 in overall English word frequency, marking it as uncommon enough that many writers pause before typing it. The dominant gloss from Wiktionary reads: "A small coaster vessel, usually sloop-rigged, used in conveying passengers and goods, or as a tender to larger vessels in port.".
No generated misspelling entries exist for hoy in our index, and the word's spelling is regular enough that our generator found nothing worth flagging. It also participates in 20 confusable-pair relationships, "HR", "HP", "HQ", and more, a pairing that trips writers up because the two words share enough sound or shape to blur together.
Etymologically, the entry records: Borrowed from German Heu or Dutch gooi. The correct English form is hoy, spelled H-O-Y.
Definition
- 1A small coaster vessel, usually sloop-rigged, used in conveying passengers and goods, or as a tender to larger vessels in port.
Etymology
Borrowed from German Heu or Dutch gooi.
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
How do you spell "hoy"?
What does "hoy" mean?
What words are commonly confused with "hoy"?
How do you pronounce "hoy"?
What is the origin of the word "hoy"?
Is PlainSpell free to use?
Using “hoy”
The practical upshot for anyone who landed here from a spell-check.
- The one correct English spelling is H-O-Y - every other letter order is a misspelling in standard orthography.
- Say it as /hɔɪ/ (IPA); tap the speaker on the pronunciation badge to hear it where audio exists.
- Don't mix it up with “HR” - see the side-by-side comparison. hoy vs HR
- 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.