HandvsholdConfusable pair

Which to use

“Hand” and “hold” are a confusable Portuguese pair: similar on the page, but distinct in meaning, check the gloss before you choose.

#13,761
“Hand” frequency rank
#13,098
“hold” frequency rank
26859
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature Hand hold
Definition mão lua, satélite natural da Terra

Where the eye mixes Hand and hold

Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 2 letters in sequence.

4 ch
Hand
4 ch
hold

Visual trap between Hand and hold

A purely visual mix-up. Hand (/hant/) and hold (/ˈhold/) 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 26859, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

Hand is recorded at frequency rank #13,761, classified as anoun, pronounced /hant/. hold is at rank #13,098, tagged as anoun, pronounced /ˈhold/.

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 26859, this pair ranks #42,221 of 75,631 scored Portuguese confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.

Orthographic DNA of Hand vs hold

Shared letters: dh. Private to "Hand": an. Private to "hold": lo.

"Hand" · 4 letters · shape CVCC  ·  "hold" · 4 letters · shape CVCC

Known mistypes of this pair

  • Handahnd · hadn · handd · hannd · hhand · hnad
  • holdhhold · hlod · hodl · holdd · holld · ohld

Frequently Asked Questions

Do "Hand" and "hold" mean the same thing in a sentence?
No. They are said differently (/hant/ versus /ˈhold/) and carry different meanings; reading the sentence aloud is usually enough to catch the wrong one.
Which is more common, "Hand" or "hold"?
"hold" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #13,098 in our Portuguese list, against #13,761 for "Hand". The two are close in frequency, so neither is a safe default; check the meaning rather than guessing.

What to do next

Pronunciation already separates them, if the page still looks alike, the dictionary links below settle it.

  • Full dictionary entry for "Hand" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "hold" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #42,221 of 75,631 scored Portuguese confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "Hand" and "hold" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "Hand vs hani". 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 #42,221 of 75,631 scored Portuguese pairs, corpus vintage 2026-09-03, not spelling advice.

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

Source: FrequencyWords open word-frequency list