hole

/hɒl/UK/həʊl/

hole noun: a hollow place or cavity; an excavation; a pit; a dent; a depression; a fissure. Also the obsolete spelling of whole.

Noun

hole (plural holes)

A hollow place or cavity; an excavation; a pit; a dent; a depression; a fissure.
- I made a blind hole in the wall for a peg. I dug a hole and planted a tree in it.
- To be called into a huge sphere, and not to be seen to move in't, are the holes where eyes should be, which pitifully disaster the cheeks.c. 1606–1607 (date written), William Shakespeare, “The Tragedie of Anthonie and Cleopatra”, in Mr. William Shakespeares Comedies, Histories, & Tragedies […] (First Folio), London: […] Isaac Iaggard...
An opening that goes all the way through a solid body, a fabric, etc.; a perforation; a rent.
- There’s a hole in my shoe. Her stocking has a hole in it.
- The priest took a chest, and bored a hole in the lid.1611, The Holy Bible, […] (King James Version), London: […] Robert Barker, […], →OCLC, 2 Kings 12:9
A subsurface standard-size hole, also called cup, hitting the ball into which is the object of play. Each hole, of which there are usually eighteen as the standard on a full course, is located on a prepared surface, called the green, of a particular type grass.
The part of a game in which a player attempts to hit the ball into one of the holes.
- I played 18 holes yesterday. The second hole today cost me three strokes over par.
The rear portion of the defensive team between the shortstop and the third baseman.
- The shortstop ranged deep into the hole to make the stop.
A square on the board, with some positional significance, that a player does not, and cannot in the future, control with a friendly pawn.
(stud poker) A card (also called a hole card) dealt face down thus unknown to all but its holder; the status in which such a card is.
In the game of fives, part of the floor of the court between the step and the pepperbox.
(slang) An excavation pit or trench.
(figuratively) A weakness; a flaw or ambiguity.
- I have found a hole in your argument.
- But between the drinks and subtle things / The holes in my apologies, you know / I’m trying hard to take it back2011, Fun, “We Are Young”
In semiconductors, a lack of an electron in an occupied band behaving like a positively charged particle.
A security vulnerability in software which can be taken advantage of by an exploit.

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(derogatory, slang, vulgar) A person's mouth.
- Just shut your hole!
(slang, vulgar) The anus.
(slang, vulgar) The vagina.
(derogatory, incel slang) A woman.
(informal, with-definite-article) Solitary confinement, a high-security prison cell often used as punishment.
- In late December a Washington State prisoner was involved in a scuffle with a guard who was trying to take him into the hole.1988 April 2, Ed Mead, “AIDS hysteria sweeps prison guards' union”, in Gay Community News, page 9
- Disciplinary actions can range from a mere write up to serious time in the hole.2011, Ahmariah Jackson, IAtomic Seven, Locked Up but Not Locked Down
Synonyms:

box, administrative segregation, ad-seg, block, cooler, hotbox, lockdown, pound, SCU, security housing unit
(slang) An undesirable place to live or visit.
- His apartment is a hole!
- I have often heard people say, "One can't live upon a view," and I have heard some of the most beautiful places called "awful holes," simply because of the monotonous lives led in them.1887, Harriet W. Daly, Digging, Squatting, and Pioneering Life in the Northern Territory of South Australia, page 109
(figuratively) Difficulty, in particular, debt.
- If you find yourself in a hole, stop digging.
- "Don't you see the hole it has put me into? […] Of course it was too late to have any alteration printed on the first night and now Miss Roscastle is the draw of the piece.1923, Ernest Bramah [pseudonym; Ernest Brammah Smith], “(please specify the page)”, in The Eyes of Max Carrados, London: Grant Richards, →OCLC
A chordless cycle in a graph.
(slang) A passing loop; a siding provided for trains traveling in opposite directions on a single-track line to pass each other.
- We’re supposed to take the hole at Cronk and wait for the Limited to pass.
(Canada, US, historical) A mountain valley.
- Jackson Hole

Verb

hole (third-person singular simple present holes, present participle holing, simple past and past participle holed)

(transitive) To make holes in (an object or surface).
- Shrapnel holed the ship's hull.
(broadly, transitive) To destroy.
- She completely holed the argument.
(intransitive) To go into a hole.
- Good master Picklock, with your worming brain,
  And wriggling engine-head of maintenance,
  Which I shall see you hole with very shortly!
  A fine round head, when those two lugs are off,
  To trundle through a pillory!1631, Ben Jonson, The Staple of News, act IV, scene ii
(transitive) To drive into a hole, as an animal, or a billiard ball or golf ball.
- If the player holes the red ball, he scores three, and upon holing his adversary's ball, he gains two; and thus it frequently happens, that seven are got upon a single stroke, by caramboling and holing both balls.1799, Sporting Magazine, volume 13, page 49
- Woods holed a standard three foot putt
(transitive) To cut, dig, or bore a hole or holes in.
- to hole a post for the insertion of rails or bars

Proper noun capitalized: Hole

Hole (plural Holes)

A surname.

Also used as

hole is also the obsolete spelling of whole.

hole is also the misspelling of whole.

hole meaning in Hindi, Tamil, Marathi and Urdu

hole in Hindi

hollow in some surface: छेद ched, छिद्र chidra
a through opening: छेद ched

hole in Tamil

hollow in some surface: ஓட்டை ōṭṭai

hole in Urdu

hollow in some surface: چھید ched

More languagesFewer languages

hole in Bengali: গর্ত gorto
hole in Malayalam: ദ്വാരം dvāraṁ, തുള tuḷa, ഓട്ട ōṭṭa, സുഷിരം suṣiraṁ
hole in Punjabi: ਮੋਰੀ morī, ਮੋਰਾ morā
hole in Odia: ଛିଦ୍ର chidra
hole in Assamese: গাঁত gãt, ফুটা phuta
hole in Pashto: سورى suráy, sóray, بغره baǧára, غار ǧār, منفذ manfáz
hole in Tagalog: butas
hole in Arabic: ثَقْب ṯaqb, حُفْرة ḥufra, حرق ḥarʔ, خرم ḵurm
hole in Malay: lubang
hole in Indonesian: lubang
hole in Persian: سوراخ surâx
hole in Thai: หลุม lǔm, รู ruu
hole in Vietnamese: lỗ
hole in Myanmar: တွင်း twang:

Examples of hole in a sentence

We have an airtight argument they won’t be able to punch holes in.
His wedge shot bounced off the stick and went in the hole.
You're going to wear a hole in the bottom of those shoes.

All 40 example sentences with hole

Synonyms of hole

2 more synonymsFewer synonyms

All synonyms of hole

Forms of hole

Noun
plural	holes
Verb
third-person singular present	holes
present participle	holing
past participle	holed
past	holed
Adjective
comparative	holer
comparative	more hole
superlative	holest
superlative	most hole
Proper noun
plural	Holes

Past tense of hole: holed

Plural of hole: holes

Origin of hole

Inherited from Middle English hole, hol, from Old English hol (“orifice, hollow place, cavity”), from Proto-West Germanic *hol (“hole”), from Proto-Germanic *hulą (“hollow space, cavity”), noun derivative of Proto-Germanic *hulaz (“hollow”), which is of uncertain ultimate origin. Related to hollow. Cognate with Dutch, Faroese, and Icelandic hol (“hole”), Danish hul (“hole”), Faroese, Icelandic, and Norn hola (“hole”), Norwegian Bokmål hol (“depression, hole, cavern”), Swedish hål (“hole”), French houle (“swell of water”). Compare unrelated Finnish kolo (“hole”).

Various origins: * English topographic surname for someone who lived by a depression, from Old English holh (“hole”), from Proto-West Germanic *hulwī, from Proto-Germanic *hulwiją. * Borrowed from Norwegian Hole, a habitational surname from Old Norse hóll (“round hill, mound”). * Shortened form of Dutch van Hole, a habitational surname from hol (“hole, depression, cavity”).

Words formed from hole

Phrases with hole

159 more phrasesFewer phrases

Words that rhyme with hole

47 more rhymesFewer rhymes

Questions about hole

What does hole mean?: Hole means a hollow place or cavity; an excavation; a pit; a dent; a depression; a fissure.
What is hole in Hindi?: Hole in Hindi is छेद (ched), छिद्र (chidra). See Hole meaning in Hindi.
What part of speech is hole?: Hole can be a noun, a verb or a proper noun.
How do you pronounce hole?: Hole is pronounced /həʊl/ (UK).
What is the plural of hole?: The plural of hole is holes.

Words near hole in the dictionary

Adapted from Wiktionary: hole (page history and authors); Hole (page history and authors). Text available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 license. Word.ws reformatted the entry and added links. Wiktionary data of 2026-09-02.

Last updated: 2026-09-02

Pronunciation audio from Wikimedia Commons, each file under its own free license: en-au-hole.ogg, en-us-hole.ogg.

Cite this entry: “hole.” Word.ws, https://word.ws/hole. Based on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.