no holds barred
"no-holds-barred" is a 13-letter English headword indexed on PlainSpell.
The verdict
“no holds barred” is uncommon English (outside the top frequency list), classed as an adjective. The kind of spelling people second-guess.
- Unranked
- below top-frequency English
- 15
- letters
According to Wiktionary data (CC BY-SA, analyzed September 3, 2026) - Without restrictions on holds or what opponents may do.
Corpus desk
Index EN-no-holds-barred · no holds barred · English
no holds barred · unranked · 0 variants · 0 confusables
- FREQ-UNRANKED Unranked
- LEN-MEGA 15 letters
- VOW-4 4 vowels
- CONFUS-0 No pairs
- VAR-0 0 variants
- BOOK-THIN "N" thin
- PHOTO-UNK Peer pending
Read with this headword: Spelling guide for this pattern
Desk codes from Wiktionary headword shape, FrequencyWords rank tier, confusable-pair count, generated misspelling depth, letter-cohort book size, and photo-finish peer. Not a difficulty grade.
| Property | Value |
|---|---|
| Headword | no holds barred |
| Language | English |
| Part of speech | Adjective |
| Letters | 15 |
| Misspellings tracked | 0 |
| Confusable pairs | 0 |
| Source | Wiktionary (kaikki.org) |
Long-tail rank of “no holds barred” in English
Rare enough to double-check
no holds barred is uncommon English outside the top frequency list, classed as anadjective. Rarity is why readers land here mid-draft. 2 senses are on record.
no holds barred has no tracked misspelling variants, a sign its spelling follows regular English conventions. Our dataset records no confusable match here, since nothing in our dataset looks or sounds close enough to cause mix-ups.
Wiktionary doesn't record an etymology for this headword, so its spelling is easiest to reason about phoneme by phoneme, absent a documented history. The correct English form is no holds barred, spelled N-O- -H-O-L-D-S- -B-A-R-R-E-D.
Definition
- 1Without restrictions on holds or what opponents may do.
- 2Having absolutely no limits or restrictions as far as the levels and nature of one's hostilities and offense; taking to an especially ruthless or vicious manner.
Recorded use
Wiktionary examplesThese source excerpts show how no holds barred appears in context. They illustrate usage; the definition above remains the entry’s reference meaning.
a no holds barred match
Near-synonyms: unrestrained, unrestricted, unreserved, unconstrained, cutthroat
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). See the methodology for how each field is sourced and updated.