Which to use
“hole” is a noun and “whole” is an adjective - they look or sound alike but fill different roles in a sentence.
- #30,943
- “hole” frequency rank
- #38,457
- “whole” frequency rank
- 69400
- confusion score
Side-by-Side Comparison
| Feature | hole | whole |
|---|---|---|
| Definition | Agujero, hoyo. | Entero, íntegro, completo. |
Same sound, different letters: hole vs whole
Muted letters are shared; highlighted letters are the only spelling cue when pronunciation matches. Shared run: 4 letters. hole runs 4 letters (CVCV) against whole's 5 (CCVCV) - the length gap alone is often enough to separate them once you know to check it.
Same sound, different spelling - hole / whole
Say them out loud and nothing separates them: hole and whole carry the same recorded pronunciation, /həʊl/. Grammar is what tells them apart: one is anoun, the other anadjective, so most sentences will only accept one of them. They differ by 1 extra letter(s) - “hole” sits inside “whole”. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 69400, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.
hole is recorded at frequency rank #30,943, classified as anoun, pronounced /həʊl/. whole is at rank #38,457, tagged as anadj, 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 69400, this pair ranks #32,073 of 323,831 scored Spanish confusable pairs - among the most confusable pairs.
Orthographic DNA of hole vs whole
Shared letters: ehlo. Private to "hole": -. Private to "whole": w.
"hole" · 4 letters · shape CVCV · "whole" · 5 letters · shape CCVCV
Known mistypes of this pair
Frequently Asked Questions
Can "hole" and "whole" be used interchangeably?
Frequency check: "hole" vs "whole" - which ranks higher?
What to do next
You've separated the homophone pair "hole" / "whole". Follow the links when you need the full entry or a neighbour that trips the same ear.
- Full dictionary entry for "hole" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
- Full dictionary entry for "whole" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
- This pair ranks #32,073 of 323,831 scored Spanish confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
- "hole" and "whole" 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 #32,073 of 323,831 scored Spanish pairs, corpus vintage 2026-09-03, not spelling advice.