hole

1 a place in a surface allowing passage into or through a thing line up the pegs on section A with the holes in section B and press the two together Synonyms aperture, opening, orifice, perforation Related Words loophole; breach, break, chink, cleft, crack, cranny, crevice, cut, fissure, gash, notch, rent, rift, rupture, slash, slit, split, tear; slot, space; exit, mouth, outlet, pore, vent; entrance, inlet, intake; pinhole, pinprick, punch, puncture; airhole, armhole, buttonhole, keyhole, knothole, peephole, pothole, wormhole Near Antonyms fill, filler, filling, patch, plug, seal, stopper; barrier, blockage, obstacle, obstruction

2 a sunken area forming a separate space dig a hole big enough to plant the tree Synonyms cavity, concavity, dent, depression, dint, hollow, indentation, indenture, pit, recess Related Words burrow, cave, cavern, ditch, excavation, furrow, groove, gutter, trench, trough; basin, bowl, valley; alcove, cleft, niche, nook, opening, recess, socket; alveolus, dimple, gouge, impression, imprint, notch, pocket; borehole, chuckhole, crater, posthole, pothole, sinkhole, wallow, water hole, well; abyss, chasm, gulf, vacuity, vacuum, void Near Antonyms hill, mound, rise; bump, bunch, hump, lump, pimple, swell, swelling, tumor Antonyms bulge, camber, convexity, jut, projection, protrusion, protuberance

3 a difficult, puzzling, or embarrassing situation from which there is no easy escape Bill dug himself into a hole by promising to be in two places at the same time Synonyms bind, box, catch-22, corner, dilemma, fix, predicament, impasse, jackpot [chiefly West], jam, mire, pickle, quagmire, rabbit hole, rattrap, spot, sticky wicket, swampRelated Words difficulty, node; hot water, soup; pinch, plight, quandary, scrape, trouble; deadlock, halt, logjam, stalemate, standstill; clutch, crisis, crossroad, emergency, exigency, juncture, strait

4 a dirty or messy place when people see my room, they often ask, “How can you live in this hole?” Synonyms dump, hellhole, pigpen, pigsty, shambles, styRelated Words chaos, confusion, disarrangement, disarray, disorder, disorganization, mess, muddle, muss; havoc, hell, mare's nest, snake pit; clutter, jumble, litter, mishmash, welter

5 an open space in a barrier (as a wall or hedge) found a hole in the chain-link fence big enough to squeeze through Synonyms breach, break, discontinuity, gulf, hiatus, gap, interstice, interval, opening, rent, rift, separation, voidRelated Words chink, cleft, crack, cranny, crevice, fissure; notch, slit, slot, split; interspace, pore; abyss, aperture, cavity, chasm, gape, orifice; fracture, rupture, severance, sundering

6 the shelter or resting place of a wild animal watched the snake slither into its hole Synonyms burrow, den, house, lair, lodgeRelated Words nest; territory

7 an incomplete or deficient area there's a huge hole in your logic Synonyms hiatus, gap, lacuna, space, voidRelated Words defectiveness, detriment, disability, failing, fault, impairment, weakness; deficiency, deficit, imperfection, inadequacy, inadequateness, incompleteness, insufficience, insufficiency, lack, need, shortcoming, shortfall, wantNear Antonyms completeness, fullness