English homophones

hooray/hurray

"hooray" (#22,403 written frequency) beats "hurray" (#33,677) in this 2-word /həˈɹeɪ/ cluster. Size rank #133 of 1,007 English groups.

Data vintage

Frequency splits the cluster

These 2 spellings keep the same /həˈɹeɪ/ reading, but written frequency splits them hard: "hooray" leads at #22,403, with "hurray" trailing at #33,677.

Spelling pairs in this cluster

  • No shared spelling stem: "hooray" is 6 letters, "hurray" is 6; only the sound ties them.

Orthographic DNA of this cluster

Shared letters across hooray, hurray: ahry. Private letters are the ones only one spelling owns: the eye's fastest tell once sound is out of the picture.

  • hooray

    6 letters · 4 vowels · shape CVVCVV

    Inventory ahory · private o

  • hurray

    6 letters · 3 vowels · shape CVCCVV

    Inventory ahruy · private u

Pick the spelling from the meaning

  • Write "hooray" when you mean: Used to express approval, joy or victory.
  • Write "hurray" when you mean: Alternative form of hooray.

Known mistypes of these spellings

Edit-distance variants recorded against this cluster: useful when a search or OCR feed lands on the wrong form.

  • hoorayhhooray · hooary · hoorayy · hoorray · hoorya · horay
  • hurrayhhurray · hruray · hurary · huray · hurrayy · hurrya

Each spelling

hooray

intj · /həˈɹeɪ/ · #22,403 frequency

Used to express approval, joy or victory.

hurray

intj · /həˈɹeɪ/ · #33,677 frequency

Alternative form of hooray.

Nearby English homophone groups

What to do next

You've reviewed the 2-spelling cluster (hooray, hurray). Here's where to go from here.

  • "hooray" is the most frequent headword in this 2-spelling cluster (rank #22,403 in English). Full entry
  • Among English homophone groups, a cluster of 2 spellings ranks #133 by size (1,007 groups in this vintage). Corpus statistics
  • Explore a nearby 2-spelling cluster: holy · wholly. Nearby cluster
  • Each spelling in "hooray, hurray" has its own headword page with definition, IPA, and misspelling variants. First entry

PlainSpell is a reference corpus, not spelling advice. Verify unusual forms in context.

Source: Wiktionary (via kaikki.org) Structured Wiktionary extract

Source: FrequencyWords open word-frequency list