hard-working

adj

"hard-working" is a 11-letter English headword indexed on PlainSpell.

The verdict

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

Unranked
below top-frequency English
12
letters

According to Wiktionary data (CC BY-SA, analyzed September 3, 2026) - Alternative form of hardworking.

Corpus desk

Index EN-hard-working · hard-working · English

hard-working · unranked · 0 variants · 0 confusables

  • FREQ-UNRANKED Unranked
  • LEN-MEGA 12 letters
  • VOW-3 3 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-working
PropertyValue
Headwordhard-working
LanguageEnglish
Part of speechAdjective
Letters12
Misspellings tracked0
Confusable pairs0
SourceWiktionary (kaikki.org)

Long-tail rank of “hard-working” in English

hard-workingranks outside the top 100,000 English headwords, in the long tail of specialist, archaic, or seldom-used vocabulary, exactly the territory where a reader stops mid-sentence to double-check spelling.

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

Rare enough to double-check

hard-working is uncommon English outside the top frequency list, classed as anadjective. Rarity is why readers land here mid-draft. Gloss: "Alternative form of hardworking.".

Zero misspellings are on record for hard-working in our index, a straightforward case of a spelling with little room for common typos. No close-neighbour confusable shows up for this headword in our dataset, which tends to mean the word is visually distinctive enough to stand on its own.

This entry's etymology isn't recorded, so its spelling pattern is best understood through pronunciation rather than a traceable origin. The correct English form is hard-working, spelled H-A-R-D---W-O-R-K-I-N-G.

Definition

  1. 1
    Alternative form of hardworking.

Recorded use

Wiktionary examples

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

  1. Coal-eaters they may have been, but a more willing or harder working Atlantic engine was never designed.
  2. Observation of my elders and betters in other advertising agencies leads me to believe that many of them are more objective, better organized, more vigorous, and harder-working than their opposite numbers in legal practice, teaching, banking, and journalism.

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-working"?
"hard-working" is spelled H-A-R-D---W-O-R-K-I-N-G.
What does "hard-working" mean?
As an adjective, "hard-working" means: Alternative form of hardworking.
What language does "hard-working" come from?
"hard-working" is a English word. PlainSpell covers definitions, pronunciations, and spelling data across English, Spanish, Portuguese, French, and German.
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