hardship
/ˈhɑɹdˌʃɪp/
"hardship" is a 8-letter English headword indexed on PlainSpell.
The verdict
“hardship” is a moderately-common English word, ranked #13,731 in English word frequency and used as a noun.
- #13,731
- frequency rank, English
- 8
- letters
- 13
- tracked misspellings
According to Wiktionary data (CC BY-SA, analyzed May 6, 2026) - Difficulty or trouble; hard times.
| Property | Value |
|---|---|
| Headword | hardship |
| Language | English |
| Part of speech | Noun |
| IPA | /ˈhɑɹdˌʃɪp/ |
| Letters | 8 |
| Frequency rank | #13,731 |
| Misspellings tracked | 13 |
| Confusable pairs | 0 |
| Source | Wiktionary (kaikki.org) |
Where “hardship” sits in English frequency
Spelling & Dictionary Insight
The English entry for hardship is 8 letters long, classified as a noun, and transcribed in the International Phonetic Alphabet as /ˈhɑɹdˌʃɪp/. Corpus data places it at rank #13,731 in overall English word frequency, marking it as uncommon enough that many writers pause before typing it. Wiktionary records 2 distinct senses for this headword, so context determines which meaning a reader should apply.
Our generated misspelling index lists 13 likely wrong-spelling variants for hardship, with forms such as "ahrdship", "hadrship", and "harddship". Each of these forms differs from the correct spelling by one small edit: a doubled letter, a dropped silent letter, or a substituted vowel. It is not paired with a close-neighbour confusable in our dataset, which typically means the spelling is too distinctive to be mistaken for another word.
Etymologically, the entry records: From Middle English hardshipe, equivalent to hard + -ship. The correct English form is hardship, spelled H-A-R-D-S-H-I-P.
Definition
- 1Difficulty or trouble; hard times.
- 2A burden, a source of difficulty that could impose a barrier.
Etymology
From Middle English hardshipe, equivalent to hard + -ship.
Antonyms
This word in other languages
Common misspellings
Also misspelled as: ahrdship,hadrship,harddship,hardhsip,hardshhip,hardshipp,hardshpi,hardsihp,hardsship,harrdship,harsdhip,hhardship,hradship
Misspelling Pattern Breakdown
How far each generated variant is from the correct spelling of hardship - expressed in single-character edits (insert, delete, or swap one letter). Bigger bars stand out at a glance; a one-edit slip is the hardest to catch.
Definitions, pronunciation, and etymology for this entry are drawn from Wiktionary via the kaikki.org structured extract (CC BY-SA); frequency ordering uses the FrequencyWords open word-frequency list (2018 English corpus, MIT). See the methodology for how each field is sourced and updated.
Frequently Asked Questions
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Using “hardship”
The practical upshot for anyone who landed here from a spell-check.
- The one correct English spelling is H-A-R-D-S-H-I-P - every other letter order is a misspelling in standard orthography.
- Say it as /ˈhɑɹdˌʃɪp/ (IPA); tap the speaker on the pronunciation badge to hear it where audio exists.
- Browse more English words and confusable pairs in the same reference. English words
Data Source
Wiktionary (via kaikki.org), licensed under CC BY-SA & GFDL. Word ordering uses an open word-frequency list; misspelling variants are generated by edit-distance from the correct headword.