Hurdle or hurtle?
hurdle is a noun meaning “An artificial barrier, variously constructed, over which athletes or horses…”; hurtle is a verb meaning “To move rapidly, violently, or without control, especially in a noisy manner”. Use hurdle as a noun and hurtle as a verb (hurtle is also a noun: “An act of colliding with or hitting; a collision”). In written English (wordfreq, 2021 data) hurdle is about 23 times as common as hurtle.
What is the difference between hurdle and hurtle?
| hurdle | hurtle | |
|---|---|---|
| Part of speech | noun, verb | verb, noun |
| Meaning | An artificial barrier, variously constructed, over which athletes or horses jump in a race An obstacle, real or perceived, physical or abstract To jump over something while running | To move rapidly, violently, or without control, especially in a noisy manner An act of colliding with or hitting; a collision A rapid or uncontrolled movement; a dash, a rush |
| Example | He ran in the 100 metres hurdles | He hurtled the wad of paper angrily at the trash can and missed by a mile |
| Forms | hurdles | hurtles, hurtling, hurtled |
| Pronunciation | /ˈhɜːdl̩/ /ˈhɝd(ə)l/ | /ˈhɜːtl̩/ /ˈhɜɹt(ə)l/ [-ɾ(ə)l] |
| In writing | 2.6 times per million words | about once in every 9 million words |
Sources: hurdle and hurtle 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 hurdle and hurtle
hurdle
- 1
An artificial barrier, variously constructed, over which athletes or horses jump in a race
He ran in the 100 metres hurdles
- 2
To jump over something while running
He hurdled the bench in his rush to get away
- 3
An obstacle, real or perceived, physical or abstract
- 4
To compete in the track and field events of hurdles (e.g. high hurdles)
- 5
A movable frame of wattled twigs, osiers, or withes and stakes, or sometimes of iron, used for enclosing land, for folding sheep and cattle, for gates, etc.; also, in fortification, used as…
- 6
To overcome an obstacle
- 7
UKA sled or crate on which criminals were drawn to the place of execution
Behind flock'd wrangling up a piteous crew, / Greeted of none, disfeatur'd and forlorn– / Cowards, who were in sloughs interr'd alive: / And round them still the wattled hurdles…
- 8
To hedge, cover, make, or enclose with hurdles
hurtle
- 1
To move rapidly, violently, or without control, especially in a noisy manner
The car hurtled down the hill at 90 miles per hour
- 2
An act of colliding with or hitting; a collision
- 3
A rapid or uncontrolled movement; a dash, a rush
- 4
A sound of clashing or colliding; a clattering, a rattling
- 5
(Violent) disagreement; conflict
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, hurdle or hurtle?
hurdle appears 2.6 times per million words; hurtle about once in every 9 million words.
hurdle 2.6 times per million wordshurtle about once in every 9 million words
Source: written frequency: wordfreq 3.1 (a 2021 snapshot of Wikipedia, subtitles, news, books, web text and social media).
How many people search hurdle vs hurtle?
“hurdle vs hurtle” is searched about 480 times a month on Google and 20 on Bing in the United States. Google counts close variants of a query together (“hurtle vs hurdle”, “hurdle or hurtle”).
Sources: Google Ads keyword data through DataForSEO and Microsoft Advertising keyword data through DataForSEO, the average month from September 2025 to August 2026.