hillvsholeTell them apart

Which to use

“hill” and “hole” are a confusable Spanish pair: similar on the page, but distinct in meaning, check the gloss before you choose.

#8,006
“hill” frequency rank
#30,943
“hole” frequency rank
38949
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature hill hole
Definition Cerro, loma, colina. Agujero, hoyo.

Where the eye mixes hill and hole

Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 2 letters in sequence.

4 ch
hill
4 ch
hole

Look-alike desk: hill vs hole

A purely visual mix-up. hill (/hɪl/) and hole (/həʊl/) are said differently, so reading them aloud is the quickest way to catch the wrong one. On the page they stay close: they share most of their letters but differ in 2 positions. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 38949, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

hill is recorded at frequency rank #8,006, classified as anoun, pronounced /hɪl/. hole is at rank #30,943, tagged as anoun, pronounced /həʊl/.

Glosses for this pair are partially populated in our dataset, but the full side-by-side definitions above should still guide you to the right choice.

With a confusion score of 38949, this pair ranks #167,217 of 323,831 scored Spanish confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.

Orthographic DNA of hill vs hole

Shared letters: hl. Private to "hill": i. Private to "hole": eo.

"hill" · 4 letters · shape CVCC  ·  "hole" · 4 letters · shape CVCV

Known mistypes of this pair

  • hillhhill · hil · hlil · ihll
  • holehhole · hloe · hoel · holle · ohle

Frequently Asked Questions

Do "hill" and "hole" mean the same thing in a sentence?
No. They are said differently (/hɪl/ versus /həʊl/) and carry different meanings; reading the sentence aloud is usually enough to catch the wrong one.
Which is more common, "hill" or "hole"?
"hill" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #8,006 in our Spanish list, against #30,943 for "hole". The two are close in frequency, so neither is a safe default; check the meaning rather than guessing.

What to do next

Visual near-miss handled. Browse the word pages or a neighbour when the next look-alike shows up.

  • Full dictionary entry for "hill" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "hole" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #167,217 of 323,831 scored Spanish confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "hill" and "hole" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "holder vs hole". Nearby pair
  • Recorded mistypes exist for at least one side of this pair, useful when a spell-checker or OCR lands on the wrong form. See mistypes

Confusion rank #167,217 of 323,831 scored Spanish pairs, corpus vintage 2026-09-03, not spelling advice.

Source: Wiktionary (via kaikki.org) Structured Wiktionary extract

Source: FrequencyWords open word-frequency list