Which to use
“hide” and “hole” are a confusable French pair: similar on the page, but distinct in meaning, check the gloss before you choose.
- #47,373
- “hide” frequency rank
- #28,986
- “hole” frequency rank
- 76359
- confusion score
Side-by-Side Comparison
| Feature | hide | hole |
|---|---|---|
| Definition | Cuir, peau (des animaux vivants). | Trou. |
Where the eye mixes hide and hole
Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 2 letters in sequence.
Why the eye confuses hide with hole
A purely visual mix-up. hide (\haɪd\) and hole (\ˈhoʊl\) 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 76359, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.
hide is recorded at frequency rank #47,373, classified as anoun, pronounced \haɪd\. hole is at rank #28,986, tagged as anoun, pronounced \ˈhoʊl\.
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 76359, this pair ranks #31,373 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - among the most confusable pairs.
Orthographic DNA of hide vs hole
Shared letters: eh. Private to "hide": di. Private to "hole": lo.
"hide" · 4 letters · shape CVCV · "hole" · 4 letters · shape CVCV
Known mistypes of this pair
Frequently Asked Questions
Do "hide" and "hole" mean the same thing in a sentence?
In ordinary French text, does "hide" or "hole" show up more?
What to do next
Pronunciation already separates them, if the page still looks alike, the dictionary links below settle it.
- Full dictionary entry for "hide" 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 #31,373 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
- "hide" and "hole" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "hedge vs hide". 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 #31,373 of 440,172 scored French pairs, corpus vintage 2026-09-03, not spelling advice.