Which to use
“hurdle” and “hurdles” are a confusable English pair: similar on the page, but distinct in meaning, check the gloss before you choose.
- #16,938
- “hurdle” frequency rank
- #14,138
- “hurdles” frequency rank
- 31076
- confusion score
Side-by-Side Comparison
| Feature | hurdle | hurdles |
|---|---|---|
| Definition | An artificial barrier, variously constructed, over which athletes or horses jump in a race. | A sport where athletes or animals run along a track obstructed by regularly placed hurdles that must be leapt over. |
Letter map: hurdle vs hurdles
Shared letters muted; letters that set hurdle and hurdles apart highlighted. Shared run: 6. hurdle runs 6 letters (CVCCCV) against hurdles's 7 (CVCCCVC) - the length gap alone is often enough to separate them once you know to check it.
Spelling & dictionary notes on hurdle vs hurdles
hurdle and hurdles are indexed as a confusable English pair. We have no recorded pronunciation or part of speech for both members, so the spelling overlap is what we can show you: they differ by 1 extra letter(s) - “hurdle” sits inside “hurdles”. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 31076, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.
hurdle is recorded at frequency rank #16,938, classified as anoun, pronounced /ˈhɜːdl̩/. hurdles is at rank #14,138, tagged as anoun.
Glosses for this pair are partially populated in our dataset, but the full side-by-side definitions above should still guide you to the right choice.
With a confusion score of 31076, this pair ranks #349,194 of 530,003 scored English confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.
Orthographic DNA of hurdle vs hurdles
Shared letters: dehlru. Private to "hurdle": -. Private to "hurdles": s.
"hurdle" · 6 letters · shape CVCCCV · "hurdles" · 7 letters · shape CVCCCVC
Known mistypes of this pair
Frequently Asked Questions
Do "hurdle" and "hurdles" mean the same thing in a sentence?
Which is more common, "hurdle" or "hurdles"?
What to do next
You've compared "hurdle" and "hurdles". Here's where to go from here.
- Full dictionary entry for "hurdle" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
- Full dictionary entry for "hurdles" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
- This pair ranks #349,194 of 530,003 scored English confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
- "hurdle" and "hurdles" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "Hardie vs hurdle". Nearby pair
- Recorded mistypes exist for at least one side of this pair, useful when a spell-checker or OCR lands on the wrong form. See mistypes
Confusion rank #349,194 of 530,003 scored English pairs, corpus vintage 2026-09-03, not spelling advice.