Which to use
“hold” and “holden” are a confusable French pair: similar on the page, but distinct in meaning, check the gloss before you choose.
- #16,383
- “hold” frequency rank
- #31,061
- “holden” frequency rank
- 47444
- confusion score
Side-by-Side Comparison
| Feature | hold | holden |
|---|---|---|
| Definition | Gracieux. | Accusatif masculin singulier de la déclinaison faible de hold. |
Where the eye mixes hold and holden
Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 4 letters in sequence. hold runs 4 letters (CVCC) against holden's 6 (CVCCVC) - the length gap alone is often enough to separate them once you know to check it.
Why the eye confuses hold with holden
A purely visual mix-up. hold (\hɔlt\) and holden (\ˈhɔldn̩\) are said differently, so reading them aloud is the quickest way to catch the wrong one. On the page they stay close: they differ by 2 extra letter(s) - “hold” sits inside “holden”. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 47444, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.
hold is recorded at frequency rank #16,383, classified as anadj, pronounced \hɔlt\. holden is at rank #31,061, tagged as anadj, pronounced \ˈhɔldn̩\.
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 47444, this pair ranks #186,882 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.
Orthographic DNA of hold vs holden
Shared letters: dhlo. Private to "hold": -. Private to "holden": en.
"hold" · 4 letters · shape CVCC · "holden" · 6 letters · shape CVCCVC
Known mistypes of this pair
Frequently Asked Questions
Is swapping "hold" for "holden" ever safe?
In ordinary French text, does "hold" or "holden" show up more?
After this comparison
Visual near-miss handled. Browse the word pages or a neighbour when the next look-alike shows up.
- Full dictionary entry for "hold" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
- Full dictionary entry for "holden" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
- This pair ranks #186,882 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
- "hold" and "holden" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "holden 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 #186,882 of 440,172 scored French pairs, corpus vintage 2026-09-03, not spelling advice.