hard hit

adj

"hard-hit" is a 7-letter English headword indexed on PlainSpell.

The verdict

“hard hit” is uncommon English (outside the top frequency list), classed as an adjective. The kind of spelling people second-guess.

Unranked
below top-frequency English
8
letters

According to Wiktionary data (CC BY-SA, analyzed September 3, 2026) - In severe difficulties; greatly affected by a problem.

Corpus desk

Index EN-hard-hit · hard hit · English

hard hit · unranked · 0 variants · 0 confusables

  • FREQ-UNRANKED Unranked
  • LEN-LONG 8 letters
  • VOW-2 2 vowels
  • CONFUS-0 No pairs
  • VAR-0 0 variants
  • BOOK-THIN "H" thin
  • PHOTO-UNK Peer pending

Read with this headword: Spelling guide for this pattern

Desk codes from Wiktionary headword shape, FrequencyWords rank tier, confusable-pair count, generated misspelling depth, letter-cohort book size, and photo-finish peer. Not a difficulty grade.

Key facts for hard hit
PropertyValue
Headwordhard hit
LanguageEnglish
Part of speechAdjective
Letters8
Misspellings tracked0
Confusable pairs0
SourceWiktionary (kaikki.org)

Long-tail rank of “hard hit” in English

hard hitsits beyond the 100,000 most-frequent English words, in the long tail of technical, archaic, or otherwise rare vocabulary where spelling doubt tends to strike hardest.

Beyond rank #100,000. Source: FrequencyWords open word-frequency list.

Rare enough to double-check

hard hit is uncommon English outside the top frequency list, classed as anadjective. Rarity is why readers land here mid-draft. Gloss: "In severe difficulties; greatly affected by a problem.".

Zero misspellings are on record for hard hit in our index, since its letter pattern doesn't lend itself to common typo substitutions. Our confusable-pair dataset has no match for it, since no other headword is close enough in sound or shape to pair with it.

No borrowing history is documented for this entry, so any spelling logic here comes from how the word's sounds map to letters, not a documented origin story. The correct English form is hard hit, spelled H-A-R-D- -H-I-T.

Definition

  1. 1
    In severe difficulties; greatly affected by a problem.

Recorded use

Wiktionary examples

These source excerpts show how hard hit appears in context. They illustrate usage; the definition above remains the entry’s reference meaning.

  1. East Coast ports, with old-established stockfishmongers and “stockfish rows”, hard hit by the collapse of business with Bergen, were naturally foremost in developing the possibilities of Iceland.
  2. “As typical of a flu season, some areas are being harder hit than other areas,” said CDC spokesman Tom Skinner.

Definitions, pronunciation, and etymology for this entry are drawn from Wiktionary via the kaikki.org structured extract (CC BY-SA). See the methodology for how each field is sourced and updated.

Frequently Asked Questions

How do you spell "hard hit"?
"hard hit" is spelled H-A-R-D- -H-I-T.
What does "hard hit" mean?
As an adjective, "hard hit" means: In severe difficulties; greatly affected by a problem.
What language does "hard hit" come from?
"hard hit" is a English word. PlainSpell's reference spans five languages -- English, Spanish, Portuguese, French, and German -- with definitions, pronunciations, and spelling data for each.
Is PlainSpell free to use?
Yes, PlainSpell is a completely free word reference. You can look up definitions, pronunciations, confusable pairs, homophones, and spelling corrections across 5 languages without any sign-up or subscription.

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

Source: FrequencyWords open word-frequency list