Which to use
“hole” is a noun and “whole” is an adjective - they look or sound alike but fill different roles in a sentence.
- #28,986
- “hole” frequency rank
- #32,639
- “whole” frequency rank
- 61625
- confusion score
Side-by-Side Comparison
| Feature | hole | whole |
|---|---|---|
| Definition | Trou. | Complet, entier, total. |
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, \ˈhoʊl\. 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 61625, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.
hole is recorded at frequency rank #28,986, classified as anoun, pronounced \ˈhoʊl\. whole is at rank #32,639, tagged as anadj, 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 61625, this pair ranks #91,287 of 440,172 scored French 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 #91,287 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
- "hole" and "whole" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "whale vs whole". 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 #91,287 of 440,172 scored French pairs, corpus vintage 2026-09-03, not spelling advice.