hate
/heɪt/noun, verb
hate is spelled H-A-T-E. The wrong spelling people search most is haet: about 60 Bing searches a month in the United States (September 2025 to August 2026), about 1 in 32 of all searches for the word. Hate is a noun meaning “An object of hatred”. The plural of hate is hates.
How many letters and syllables are in hate?
| Letters | 4: H-A-T-E |
|---|---|
| Syllables | 1 (from its American pronunciation) |
| In writing | 129 times per million words; the 810th most frequent word form |
| Wrong spellings searched | 1; the most searched, haet, about 60 Bing searches a month (all of them) |
| Sounds like | |
| Rhymes with | |
| Same letters |
Sources: letters and syllables from the English Wiktionary's hyphenation or pronunciation and the CMU Pronouncing Dictionary; written frequency: wordfreq 3.1 (a 2021 snapshot of Wikipedia, subtitles, news, books, web text and social media); Bing searches in the United States: the average month from September 2025 to August 2026 (Microsoft Advertising keyword data through DataForSEO, read September 30, 2026); rhymes and same-letter words are computed by PlainSpell from its own word list.
How do you spell hate?
Hate is spelled H-A-T-E. One wrong spelling is searched or written often enough to measure; together they are about 1 in 32 of the searches for hate in either form.
Bing searches in the United States: the average month from September 2025 to August 2026 (Microsoft Advertising keyword data through DataForSEO, read September 30, 2026). Wrong spellings are taken from Wiktionary entries tagged "misspelling" and its obsolete or nonstandard forms, Wikipedia's Lists of common misspellings and the codespell dictionary, then measured. The proofreader's marks show the change that corrects each one.
How common is hate?
Hate appears 129 times per million words in written English, the 810th most frequent word form in the list.
Source: written frequency: wordfreq 3.1 (a 2021 snapshot of Wikipedia, subtitles, news, books, web text and social media).
How do you pronounce hate?
- US /heɪt/
- US [hɛɪ̯(ʔ)t̚]
- US [he̞ɪ̯(ʔ)t̚]
Hate has one syllable (counted from its American pronunciation in the CMU Pronouncing Dictionary).
Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract). Recordings: LL-Q1860_(eng)-Back_ache-hate.wav, En-us-hate.ogg, LL-Q1860_(eng)-Vealhurl-hate.wav, Wikimedia Commons (author and licence on each file's page).
Words people confuse with hate
Sounds like: Haight (Wiktionary's homophone list; some hold only in some accents).
Sources: English Wiktionary (homophones, alternative spellings).
What rhymes with hate?
The 12 most written words on PlainSpell end in the same sounds as hate from its last stressed vowel (/eɪt/):
Spelled with the same letters in another order: heat, eath, heta.
Computed by PlainSpell from the pronunciations in the English Wiktionary (dump of September 2, 2026): a rhyme shares every sound from the last stressed vowel to the end; ordered by written frequency (wordfreq 3.1).
Forms of hate
- hates plural, present, singular, he/she/it
- hating participle, present
- hated participle, past, singular, he/she/it, plural
Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract).
What does hate mean?
The meanings the English Wiktionary records, quoted as written there (source below).
noun
- 1
An object of hatred.
One of my pet hates is traffic wardens.
- 2
Hatred.
He gave me a look filled with pure hate.
- 3
Negative feedback, abusive behaviour.
There was a lot of hate in the comments on my vlog about Lady Gaga from her fans.
- 4
Bigotry.
The corporation said it would not tolerate hate.
verb
- 1
To dislike intensely or greatly.
As a kid, I used to hate to cycle to school every morning.
- 2
To experience a feeling of hatred.
- 3
informalslangUsed in a phrasal verb: hate on.
I put ranch dressing on pizza. Please don't hate on me.
Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract).
Hate in Spanish, French, German and Portuguese
Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract). Translations are Wiktionary's, by sense; a linked word has its own PlainSpell page.
Where does hate come from?
From Middle English haate, hat, hate (noun), probably from Old English hatian (“to hate”, verb) and/or Old Norse hatr (“hate”, noun). Merged with Middle English het, hete (“hate”), from Old English hete, from Proto-West Germanic *hati, from Proto-Germanic *hataz (“hate”), from Proto-Indo-European *ḱeh₂d- (“angriness, hatred”).
Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract).