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Hall or haul?

hall is a noun meaning “A corridor; a hallway”; haul is a verb meaning “To transport by drawing or pulling, as with horses or oxen, or a motor vehicle”. Use hall as a noun and haul as a verb (haul is also a noun: “An act of hauling or pulling, particularly with force; a…”). They sound the same (/hɔːl/). In written English (wordfreq, 2021 data) hall is about 9.8 times as common as haul.

hallorhaul

What is the difference between hall and haul?

hallhaul
Part of speechnounverb, noun
Meaning

A corridor; a hallway

A large meeting room

UKHall class, a class of steam locomotive used on the GWR

To transport by drawing or pulling, as with horses or oxen, or a motor vehicle

To draw or pull something heavy

An act of hauling or pulling, particularly with force; a (violent) pull or tug

ExampleThe drinking fountain was out in the hallto haul logs to a sawmill
Formshallshauls, hauling, hauled
Pronunciation/hɔːl/ /hoːl/ /hɔl//hɔːl/ /hoːl/ /hɔl/
In writing74 times per million words7.6 times per million words

Sources: hall and haul in the English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0); written frequency: wordfreq 3.1 (a 2021 snapshot of Wikipedia, subtitles, news, books, web text and social media).

Every current meaning of hall and haul

hall

  1. 1

    noun A corridor; a hallway

    The drinking fountain was out in the hall

  2. 2

    noun UKHall class, a class of steam locomotive used on the GWR

  3. 3

    noun A large meeting room

    The hotel had three halls for conferences, and two were in use by the convention

  4. 4

    noun A manor house (originally because a magistrate's court was held in the hall of his mansion)

    The duke lived in a great hall overlooking the sea

  5. 5

    noun A building providing student accommodation at a university

    The student government hosted several social events so that students from different halls would intermingle

  6. 6

    noun The principal room of a secular medieval building

  7. 7

    noun A place for special professional education, or for conferring professional degrees or licences

    a Divinity Hall; Apothecaries' Hall

  8. 8

    noun IndiaA living room

haul

  1. 1

    verb To transport by drawing or pulling, as with horses or oxen, or a motor vehicle

    to haul logs to a sawmill

  2. 2

    noun An act of hauling or pulling, particularly with force; a (violent) pull or tug

  3. 3

    verb To draw or pull something heavy

  4. 4

    noun The distance over which something is hauled or transported, especially if long

    Getting to his place was a real haul

  5. 5

    verb To carry or transport something, with a connotation that the item is heavy or otherwise difficult to move

  6. 6

    noun An amount of something that has been taken, especially of fish, illegal loot, or items purchased on a shopping trip

    The robber’s haul was over thirty items

  7. 7

    verb To drag, to pull, to tug

  8. 8

    noun Ellipsis of haul video (“video posted on the Internet consisting of someone showing and talking about recently purchased items”)

Source: the English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0); obsolete, archaic, dialect and rare senses left out.

Which is more common, hall or haul?

hall appears 74 times per million words; haul 7.6 times per million words.

Source: written frequency: wordfreq 3.1 (a 2021 snapshot of Wikipedia, subtitles, news, books, web text and social media).

The words