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holt

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holt¹

  • /hɒlt/ UK
  • /həʊlt/ UK
  • /hoʊlt/ US

Rhymes with -ɒlt, -əʊlt

Where it comes from

From Middle English holt, from Old English holt (“forest, wood, grove, thicket; wood, timber”), from Proto-West Germanic *holt, from Proto-Germanic *hultą (“wood”), from Proto-Indo-European *kald-, *klād- (“timber, log”), perhaps corresponding to a root noun *kél(h₂)d ~ *kól(h₂)d ~ *kl̥(h₂)d- (literally “chopped (wood)”), from Proto-Indo-European *kelh₂-, *kleh₂- (“to beat, hew, break, destroy, kill”).

Cognate with Scots holt (“a wood, copse, thicket”), North Frisian holt (“wood, timber”), West Frisian hout (“timber, wood”), Dutch hout (“wood, timber”), German Holz (“wood”), Icelandic holt (“woodland, hillock”), Old Irish caill (“forest, wood, woodland”), Ancient Greek κλάδος (kládos, “branch, shoot, twig”), Slovene kol (“stake”), Albanian shul (“door latch”). Doublet of hout. See also clade and cladus, possible doublets via Proto-Indo-European.

noun holts · hoult

  1. A small piece of woodland or a woody hill; a copse. As over Holt and Heath, as thorough Frith and Fell;
  2. The lair of an animal, especially of an otter. Where the river begins to slow, at the beginning of the pool, its left bank is bound by the open roots of oak, ash, alder, and sycamore. To hunted otters these trees offered holding as secure as any in the country of the Two Rivers. Harper, the aged hound—he was fourteen years old—knew every holt in

Holt²

Where it comes from

English, Dutch, north German, Norwegian and Danish surname, all from the noun holt (“copse, woodland”).

proper noun Holts

  1. countable, uncountable A surname An English and north-west European topographic surname for someone who lived by a small wood.
  2. countable, uncountable A village and civil parish in Dorset, England, previously in East Dorset district (OS grid ref SU0203).
  3. countable, uncountable A suburb of the town of Hook, Hart district, Hampshire (OS grid ref SU7354).
  4. countable, uncountable A market town and civil parish with a town council in North Norfolk district, Norfolk, England (OS grid ref TG0738).
  5. countable, uncountable A village and civil parish in Wiltshire, England (OS grid ref ST8662).
  6. countable, uncountable A village and civil parish in Malvern Hills district, Worcestershire, England (OS grid ref SO8262).
  7. countable, uncountable A village and community in Wrexham borough county borough, Wales, on the River Dee, the border with England (OS grid SJ4153).
  8. countable, uncountable An unincorporated community and census-designated place in Tuscaloosa County, Alabama.
  9. countable, uncountable An unincorporated community in San Joaquin County, California.
  10. countable, uncountable An unincorporated community in Okaloosa County, Florida.
  11. countable, uncountable A township in Taylor County, Iowa.
  12. countable, uncountable An unincorporated community in Breckinridge County, Kentucky.
  13. countable, uncountable An unincorporated community in Muhlenberg County, Kentucky.
  14. countable, uncountable An unincorporated community and census-designated place in Ingham County, Michigan.
  15. countable, uncountable A township in Fillmore County, Minnesota.
  16. countable, uncountable A minor city in Marshall County, Minnesota.
  17. countable, uncountable A township in Marshall County, Minnesota.
  18. countable, uncountable A minor city in Clay County and Clinton County, Missouri.
  19. countable, uncountable A township in Gage County, Nebraska.
  20. countable, uncountable A former township in Adams County, North Dakota, now part of Central Adams, North Dakota.
  21. countable, uncountable An unincorporated community in Jefferson County, Ohio.
  22. countable, uncountable An unincorporated community in the town of Franzen, Marathon County, Wisconsin.
  23. countable, uncountable A village in East Gwillimbury, Regional Municipality of York, Ontario, Canada.
  24. countable, uncountable A municipality in Schleswig-Flensburg district, Schleswig-Holstein, Germany.
  25. countable, uncountable A hamlet in Overijssel, Netherlands; see Dutch Holt.
  26. countable, uncountable A village in Tvedestrand municipality, Agder, Norway.
  27. countable, uncountable A village in Letea Veche, Bacău County, Romania.
  28. countable, uncountable A suburb of Canberra, Australian Capital Territory, Australia, named after PM Harold Holt.
  29. abbreviation, countable, ellipsis, uncountable Ellipsis of Holt County

Thesaurus

Closest in meaning: osier, grove, wood, woodland, woods, forest, thicket, copse, coppice, spinney, bosk, bosquet, boskage, wildwood, brake, brushwood

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Cite this
MLA

"holt." Wiktionary, via Micwyn, micwyn.com/word/holt. Accessed 6 Nov. 2026.

APA

holt. (n.d.). In Wiktionary, via Micwyn. Retrieved November 6, 2026, from https://micwyn.com/word/holt

Chicago

"holt." Wiktionary, via Micwyn. Accessed November 6, 2026. https://micwyn.com/word/holt.

BibTeX
@misc{holt_2026,
  title = {holt},
  howpublished = {Wiktionary, via Micwyn},
  year = {2026},
  url = {https://micwyn.com/word/holt},
  urldate = {2026-11-06}
}