holavsholeWhich spelling fits?

Quick tell: hola is a intj, hole is a noun, so they fill different roles in a sentence.

Which to use

“hola” is an intj and “hole” is a noun - they look or sound alike but fill different roles in a sentence.

#433
“hola” frequency rank
#30,943
“hole” frequency rank
31376
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature hola hole
Definition Expresión de saludo utilizada entre dos o más personas de trato familiar, sin importar el momento del día ni las circunstancias. Agujero, hoyo.

Where the eye mixes hola and hole

Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 3 letters in sequence.

4 ch
hola
4 ch
hole

Visual trap between hola and hole

These two trip readers on the page rather than in the ear: hola is [ˈola] while hole is /həʊl/. Spoken aloud the problem disappears. In writing it persists, because they differ by a single letter - a in “hola” becomes e in “hole”, and the parts of speech differ too (intj vs noun), which is usually the fastest check. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 31376, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

hola is recorded at frequency rank #433, classified as anintj, pronounced [ˈola]. 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 31376, this pair ranks #207,378 of 323,831 scored Spanish confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.

Orthographic DNA of hola vs hole

Shared letters: hlo. Private to "hola": a. Private to "hole": e.

"hola" · 4 letters · shape CVCV  ·  "hole" · 4 letters · shape CVCV

Known mistypes of this pair

  • holahhola · hloa · hoal · holla · ohla
  • holehhole · hloe · hoel · holle · ohle

Frequently Asked Questions

Can "hola" and "hole" be used interchangeably?
No - they are not even the same part of speech. "hola" is an intj and "hole" a noun, so a sentence built for one is usually ungrammatical with the other.
In ordinary Spanish text, does "hola" or "hole" show up more?
"hola" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #433 in our Spanish list, against #30,943 for "hole". That is a wide gap, so in ordinary text the rarer spelling is the one worth double-checking.

What to do next

Eye-level mix-up between "hola" and "hole" is sorted above. Next: full entries or other pairs that share a letter shape.

  • Full dictionary entry for "hola" 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 #207,378 of 323,831 scored Spanish confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "hola" 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 #207,378 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