HoldvshoraTell them apart

Quick tell: Hold is a name, hora is a noun, so they fill different roles in a sentence.

Which to use

“Hold” is a name and “hora” is a noun - they look or sound alike but fill different roles in a sentence.

#30,508
“Hold” frequency rank
#286
“hora” frequency rank
30794
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature Hold hora
Definition Luna (satélite natural de la Tierra). Cada una de las 24 partes de igual duración en que se divide el día, a su vez subdivididas cada una de ellas en 60 minutos.

Where the eye mixes Hold and hora

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

4 ch
Hold
4 ch
hora

Why the eye confuses Hold with hora

These two trip readers on the page rather than in the ear: Hold is /hold/ while hora is [ˈoɾa]. Spoken aloud the problem disappears. In writing it persists, because they share most of their letters but differ in 2 positions, and the parts of speech differ too (name vs noun), which is usually the fastest check. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 30794, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

Hold is recorded at frequency rank #30,508, classified as aname, pronounced /hold/. hora is at rank #286, tagged as anoun, pronounced [ˈoɾa].

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 30794, this pair ranks #210,260 of 323,831 scored Spanish confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.

Orthographic DNA of Hold vs hora

Shared letters: ho. Private to "Hold": dl. Private to "hora": ar.

"Hold" · 4 letters · shape CVCC  ·  "hora" · 4 letters · shape CVCV

Known mistypes of this pair

  • Holdhhold · hlod · hodl · holdd · holld · ohld
  • horahhora · hoar · horra · hroa · ohra

Frequently Asked Questions

Do "Hold" and "hora" mean the same thing in a sentence?
No - they are not even the same part of speech. "Hold" is a name and "hora" a noun, so a sentence built for one is usually ungrammatical with the other.
Frequency check: "Hold" vs "hora" - which ranks higher?
"hora" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #286 in our Spanish list, against #30,508 for "Hold". 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 "Hold" and "hora" is sorted above. Next: full entries or other pairs that share a letter shape.

  • Full dictionary entry for "Hold" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "hora" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #210,260 of 323,831 scored Spanish confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "Hold" and "hora" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "Hold vs holder". 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 #210,260 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