hurlingvshurtingWhat's the difference?

Which to use

“hurling” and “hurting” are a confusable English pair: similar on the page, but distinct in meaning, check the gloss before you choose.

#24,192
“hurling” frequency rank
#5,974
“hurting” frequency rank
30166
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature hurling hurting
Definition The act by which something is hurled or thrown. A sensation that hurts.

Where the spellings diverge

Shared letters are muted; the letters that actually set hurling and hurting apart are highlighted. They share 6 letters in sequence, which is exactly why the eye skips the difference.

7 ch
hurling
7 ch
hurting

Spelling & Dictionary Insight

hurling and hurting 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 a single letter - l in “hurling” becomes t in “hurting”. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 30166, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

hurling is recorded at frequency rank #24,192, classified as anoun. hurting is at rank #5,974, 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 30166, this pair ranks #356,831 of 530,003 scored English confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.

Orthographic DNA of hurling vs hurting

Shared letters: ghinru. Private to "hurling": l. Private to "hurting": t.

"hurling" · 7 letters · shape CVCCVCC  ·  "hurting" · 7 letters · shape CVCCVCC

Known mistypes of this pair

  • hurlinghhurling · hruling · hulring · hurilng · hurlign · hurlingg · hurlinng · hurlling
  • hurtinghhurting · hruting · huritng · hurrting · hurtign · hurtingg · hurtinng · hurtnig

Frequency comparison

hurling#24,192
hurting#5,974

Source: FrequencyWords open word-frequency list

Frequently Asked Questions

Can "hurling" and "hurting" be used interchangeably?
No. They differ by a single letter - l in “hurling” becomes t in “hurting”, but the dictionary glosses above give them different meanings, so swapping one for the other changes what the sentence says.
Which is more common, "hurling" or "hurting"?
"hurting" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #5,974 in our English list, against #24,192 for "hurling". The two are close in frequency, so neither is a safe default; check the meaning rather than guessing.

Remembering hurling vs hurting

The fastest way to pick the right one every time.

  • Read both glosses above and match the meaning you intend, only context separates this pair.
  • See each word in full, definition, IPA, etymology and its other confusables. Full “hurling” entry
  • Browse more pairs most likely to be confused. Most confusable

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

Source: FrequencyWords open word-frequency list