pinhole
/ˈpɪnˌhoʊl/
"pinhole" is a 7-letter English headword indexed on PlainSpell.
The verdict
“pinhole” is uncommon English (frequency #53,777 among 4,417 “P” headwords), classed as a noun. The kind of spelling people second-guess.
- #53,777
- frequency rank, English
- 4,417
- “P” headwords
According to Wiktionary data (CC BY-SA, analyzed September 3, 2026) - A small hole, of a size that could have been made by a pin
Corpus desk
Index EN-pinhole · pinhole · English
pinhole · rank #53,777 · 0 variants · 0 confusables
- FREQ-RARE #53,777
- LEN-LONG 7 letters
- VOW-3 3 vowels
- CONFUS-0 No pairs
- VAR-0 0 variants
- BOOK-MID 4,417
- PHOTO-FINISH Pimlico
Nearest frequency peer: Pimlico (-1 rank slots)
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.
Long-tail ranks near “pinhole”
Sparse band: bars invert rank so rarer forms read shorter
- pasties
pasties
46,231 corpus weight
- perrier
perrier
46,228 corpus weight
- Pimlico
Pimlico
46,225 corpus weight
- pinhole
pinhole
46,224 corpus weight
- Pires
Pires
46,221 corpus weight
- polemical
polemical
46,217 corpus weight
What this shows Long-tail view: where “pinhole” sits against similarly uncommon English ranks.
| Property | Value |
|---|---|
| Headword | pinhole |
| Language | English |
| Part of speech | Noun |
| IPA | /ˈpɪnˌhoʊl/ |
| Letters | 7 |
| Frequency rank | #53,777 |
| Misspellings tracked | 0 |
| Confusable pairs | 0 |
| Source | Wiktionary (kaikki.org) |
Long-tail rank of “pinhole” in English
Rare enough to double-check
pinhole is uncommon English at frequency #53,777 among 4,417 “P” headwords, classed as anoun, transcribed /ˈpɪnˌhoʊl/. Rarity is why readers land here mid-draft. 4 senses are on record.
No misspelling variants are generated for pinhole in our index, a straightforward case of a spelling with little room for common typos. No close-neighbour confusable shows up for this headword in our dataset, which usually means its spelling is distinct enough that readers don't reach for a similar-looking word instead.
Etymologically, the entry records: From pin + hole. The correct English form is pinhole, spelled P-I-N-H-O-L-E.
Definition
- 1A small hole, of a size that could have been made by a pin
- 2The aperture in a pinhole camera or camera obscura
- 3A port left unprotected by a firewall to allow a particular application to gain access to a service.
- 4A clipping of pinhole eye, which refers to the compact eye structure associated with intense tropical cyclones.
Recorded use
Wiktionary exampleThese source excerpts show how pinhole appears in context. They illustrate usage; the definition above remains the entry’s reference meaning.
These [the eyes of the nautilus] are the simplest eyes of any large living animal -- lensless 'pinholes' that project a hazy and rather dim image onto its retinas.
Etymology
From pin + hole.
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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Similar English words by spelling shape
Same letter count and similar misspelling depth for "pinhole", not the corpus desk frequency band.
Same letter count
Frequency-ranked English headwords with 7 letters (nearest by frequency rank).