I wanted to know what is the difference between 濠 (gō) and 堀 (hori). I've only
seen 濠 in context of 環濠 (kangō), 豪華な (gōkana) and 豪州 (gōshū). From what I know
環濠 and 堀 both means moat. Well, then, what does 濠 means alone?
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kanji
Difference between 濠 and 堀
堀 refers to artificial ditches in general. 壕 is a dry version, and 濠 is a wet
version filled with water. Practically, I kind of feel 壕 and 濠 tend to be used
in military contexts, whereas 堀 tends to refer to permanent and beautiful ones
surrounding large castles.

Note that 壕 and 濠 are [phono-sementic
kanji](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chinese_character_classification#Phono-
semantic_compound_characters); the left parts (土 = soil and 氵 = water)
contribute to the meaning, but the right part, 豪, just represents the sound
ごう. The kanji 豪 on its own means something like "great" or "magnificent", as
in 豪華, but its _meaning_ is not important in 濠 and 壕. 豪 in 豪州 is [just an
ateji](https://japanese.stackexchange.com/a/86379/5010).
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Etymologically, in Chinese, **濠** or 壕 (depending on whether it is watered or
dry) is the character that represents the word _háo_ "moat, trench". **堀** is
a now rare variant of 窟, which stands for the word _kū_ "cave, burrow, hole",
and does **not** have the same meaning as the former.

However, in Japanese, the notion "moat" is represented by the word ほり, which
obviously derives from 掘【ほ】る "dig, bore", as if literally saying "dug" or
"digging". Consequently it is felt more natural for Japanese to employ the
character 堀, which looks similar to 掘* and has radical 土 associated with
"building", when writing this word. It is an example of
[国訓](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kanji#Kokkun), a Japanese-only meaning the
Chinese language has never given to the character.

Although assigned the kun'yomi ほり as well, 濠 is far from the primary option
for representing the native word. Instead, it is used as a synonym to build
on'yomi compounds such as 環濠 (or 防空壕, 塹壕 via 壕). This is just contrary to 堀,
which seldom appears in on'yomi クツ it technically has.

* * *

* Unlike Japanese, 掘 and 堀 are not homophones in Chinese ( _jué_ < * _gjwot_ vs _kū_ < * _khwot_ ), though they are presumably cognate.
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