hate
/heʔ/
"hate" is a 4-letter English headword indexed on PlainSpell.
The verdict
“hate” is in the everyday core of English, ranked #807 in English word frequency and used as a noun.
- #807
- frequency rank, English
- 4
- letters
- 5
- tracked misspellings
- 20
- confusable pairs
According to Wiktionary data (CC BY-SA, analyzed May 6, 2026) - An object of hatred.
Visual similarity to commonly confused words
How many letter changes separate each confused pair (Levenshtein distance, normalized).
Source: PlainSpell confusable corpus (Wiktionary, CC BY-SA).
| Property | Value |
|---|---|
| Headword | hate |
| Language | English |
| Part of speech | Noun |
| IPA | /heʔ/ |
| Letters | 4 |
| Frequency rank | #807 |
| Misspellings tracked | 5 |
| Confusable pairs | 20 |
| Source | Wiktionary (kaikki.org) |
Where “hate” sits in English frequency
Spelling & Dictionary Insight
The English entry for hate is 4 letters long, classified as a noun, and transcribed in the International Phonetic Alphabet as /heʔ/. Corpus data places it at rank #807 in overall English word frequency, putting it firmly in the everyday core of the language. Wiktionary records 4 distinct senses for this headword, so context determines which meaning a reader should apply.
Our generated misspelling index lists 5 likely wrong-spelling variants for hate, with forms such as "ahte", "haet", and "hatte". 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 also participates in 20 confusable-pair relationships, "he", "hit", "hot", and more, since the words sound or look close enough that writers reach for the wrong one mid-sentence.
Etymologically, the entry records: From Middle English hate (noun), probably from Old English hatian (“to hate”, verb) and/or Old Norse hatr (“hate”, noun). Merged with Middle English hete, hæte, heate (“hate”), from Old English hete, from Proto-Germanic *hataz (“hatred, hate”), from Proto-I… The correct English form is hate, spelled H-A-T-E.
Definition
- 1An object of hatred.
- 2Hatred.
- 3Negative feedback, abusive behaviour.
- 4Bigotry.
Etymology
From Middle English hate (noun), probably from Old English hatian (“to hate”, verb) and/or Old Norse hatr (“hate”, noun). Merged with Middle English hete, hæte, heate (“hate”), from Old English hete, from Proto-Germanic *hataz (“hatred, hate”), from Proto-Indo-European *keh₂d- (“strong emotion”). Cognate with Dutch haat (“hatred”), German Hass, Haß (“hate, hatred”), Luxembourgish Haass (“hate, hatred”), Vilamovian hās (“hate, hatred”), Yiddish האַס (has, “hatred”), Danish had (“hate, hatred”), Faroese, Icelandic hatur (“hatred, spite, aversion”), Norwegian Bokmål, Norwegian Nynorsk and Swedish hat (“hate, hatred”), Gothic 𐌷𐌰𐍄𐌹𐍃 (hatis, “hate, wrath”). The verb is from Middle English haten, from Old English hatian (“to hate, treat as an enemy”), from Proto-West Germanic *hatēn, from Proto-Germanic *hatāną (“to hate”), from Proto-Germanic *hataz, from the same root as above.
This word in other languages
Common misspellings
Also misspelled as: ahte,haet,hatte,hhate,htae
Misspelling Pattern Breakdown
How far each generated variant is from the correct spelling of hate - 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 “hate”
The practical upshot for anyone who landed here from a spell-check.
- The one correct English spelling is H-A-T-E - every other letter order is a misspelling in standard orthography.
- Say it as /heʔ/ (IPA); tap the speaker on the pronunciation badge to hear it where audio exists.
- Don't mix it up with “he” - see the side-by-side comparison. hate vs he
- 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.