holevshorseWhich spelling fits?

Which to use

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

#26,052
“hole” frequency rank
#22,675
“horse” frequency rank
48727
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature hole horse
Definition buraco cavalo

Where the eye mixes hole and horse

Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 3 letters in sequence. hole runs 4 letters (CVCV) against horse's 5 (CVCCV) - the length gap alone is often enough to separate them once you know to check it.

4 ch
hole
5 ch
horse

Visual trap between hole and horse

A purely visual mix-up. hole (/hoʊl/) and horse (/ˈhɔːɹs/) 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 48727, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

hole is recorded at frequency rank #26,052, classified as anoun, pronounced /hoʊl/. horse is at rank #22,675, tagged as anoun, pronounced /ˈhɔːɹs/.

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 48727, this pair ranks #16,424 of 75,631 scored Portuguese confusable pairs - among the most confusable pairs.

Orthographic DNA of hole vs horse

Shared letters: eho. Private to "hole": l. Private to "horse": rs.

"hole" · 4 letters · shape CVCV  ·  "horse" · 5 letters · shape CVCCV

Known mistypes of this pair

  • hole ← hhole · hloe · hoel · holle · ohle
  • horse ← hhorse · hores · horrse · horsse · hosre · hrose · ohrse

Frequently Asked Questions

Can "hole" and "horse" be used interchangeably?
No. They are said differently (/hoʊl/ versus /ˈhɔːɹs/) and carry different meanings; reading the sentence aloud is usually enough to catch the wrong one.
Frequency check: "hole" vs "horse" - which ranks higher?
"horse" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #22,675 in our Portuguese list, against #26,052 for "hole". The two are close in frequency, so neither is a safe default; check the meaning rather than guessing.

Useful next steps

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

  • Full dictionary entry for "hole" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "horse" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #16,424 of 75,631 scored Portuguese confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "hole" and "horse" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "Hebe vs hole". 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 #16,424 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