holdervshordeWhat's the difference?

Which to use

“holder” and “horde” are a confusable French pair: similar on the page, but distinct in meaning, check the gloss before you choose.

#44,493
“holder” frequency rank
#16,642
“horde” frequency rank
61135
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature holder horde
Definition Détenteur (dans le domaine financier, en particulier). Tribu nomade d’Asie centrale.

Where the eye mixes holder and horde

Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 4 letters in sequence. holder runs 6 letters (CVCCVC) against horde's 5 (CVCCV) - the length gap alone is often enough to separate them once you know to check it.

6 ch
holder
5 ch
horde

Look-alike desk: holder vs horde

A purely visual mix-up. holder (\ɔl.dœʁ\) and horde (^((h aspiré))\ɔʁd\) 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 1 letter(s) in length. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 61135, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

holder is recorded at frequency rank #44,493, classified as anoun, pronounced \ɔl.dœʁ\. horde is at rank #16,642, tagged as anoun, pronounced ^((h aspiré))\ɔʁd\.

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 61135, this pair ranks #93,896 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - among the most confusable pairs.

Orthographic DNA of holder vs horde

Shared letters: dehor. Private to "holder": l. Private to "horde": -.

"holder" · 6 letters · shape CVCCVC  ·  "horde" · 5 letters · shape CVCCV

Known mistypes of this pair

  • holder ← hholder · hloder · hodler · holdder · holderr · holdre · holedr · hollder
  • horde ← hhorde · hodre · hordde · hored · horrde · hrode · ohrde

Frequently Asked Questions

Can "holder" and "horde" be used interchangeably?
No. They are said differently (\ɔl.dœʁ\ versus ^((h aspiré))\ɔʁd\) and carry different meanings; reading the sentence aloud is usually enough to catch the wrong one.
Which is more common, "holder" or "horde"?
"horde" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #16,642 in our French list, against #44,493 for "holder". The two are close in frequency, so neither is a safe default; check the meaning rather than guessing.

After this comparison

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

  • Full dictionary entry for "holder" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "horde" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #93,896 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "holder" and "horde" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "Haller 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 #93,896 of 440,172 scored French pairs, corpus vintage 2026-09-03, not spelling advice.

Source: Wiktionary (via kaikki.org) Structured Wiktionary extract

Source: FrequencyWords open word-frequency list