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PlainSpell

haul

/hɔl/verb, noun

haul is spelled H-A-U-L: 4 letters and one syllable. It appears 7.6 times per million words in written English, the 8,542nd most frequent word form (wordfreq, 2021 data). As a verb, haul means “To transport by drawing or pulling, as with horses or oxen, or a motor vehicle” (English Wiktionary, September 2026).

How many letters and syllables are in haul?

Letters4: H-A-U-L
Syllables1 (from its American pronunciation)
In writing7.6 times per million words; the 8,542nd most frequent word form
Wrong spellings searchednone measured in search
Pairs people search
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 common is haul?

Haul appears 7.6 times per million words in written English, the 8,542nd 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 haul?

  • UK /hɔːl/
  • British /hoːl/
  • US /hɔl/

Haul 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: En-au-haul.ogg, Wikimedia Commons (author and licence on each file's page).

Words people confuse with haul

Word pairs people search, with the monthly searches for “a vs b” (G: Google, B: Bing, United States).

hall vs haul0 B

Sounds like: hall (Wiktionary's homophone list; some hold only in some accents).

Sources: Google and Bing searches (September 2025 to August 2026, through DataForSEO); English Wiktionary (homophones, alternative spellings).

What rhymes with haul?

The 12 most written words on PlainSpell end in the same sounds as haul from its last stressed vowel (/ɔl/):

Spelled with the same letters in another order: hula.

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 haul

  • hauls present, singular, he/she/it, plural
  • hauling participle, present
  • hauled participle, past

Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract).

What does haul mean?

The meanings the English Wiktionary records, quoted as written there (source below).

verb

  1. 1

    To transport by drawing or pulling, as with horses or oxen, or a motor vehicle.

    to haul logs to a sawmill

  2. 2

    To draw or pull something heavy.

  3. 3

    To carry or transport something, with a connotation that the item is heavy or otherwise difficult to move.

  4. 4

    To drag, to pull, to tug.

  5. 5

    Followed by up: to summon to be disciplined or held answerable for something.

  6. 6

    To pull apart, as oxen sometimes do when yoked.

  7. 7

    To steer (a vessel) closer to the wind.

  8. 8

    Of the wind: to shift fore (more towards the bow).

noun

  1. 1

    An act of hauling or pulling, particularly with force; a (violent) pull or tug.

  2. 2

    The distance over which something is hauled or transported, especially if long.

    Getting to his place was a real haul.

  3. 3

    An amount of something that has been taken, especially of fish, illegal loot, or items purchased on a shopping trip.

    The robber’s haul was over thirty items.

  4. 4

    Ellipsis of haul video (“video posted on the Internet consisting of someone showing and talking about recently purchased items”).

  5. 5

    A bundle of many threads to be tarred.

  6. 6

    UKFour goals scored by one player in a game.

Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract).

Haul in Spanish, French, German and Portuguese

LanguageWords
Frenchhaler (to draw or pull something heavy), trainer (to carry or transport something heavy or…), butin, magot (amount of something taken)
Germanziehen, schleppen (to draw or pull something heavy), transportieren, befödern (to carry or transport something heavy or…), Streckenzurücklegung, Transportweg (distance over which something is hauled or…)
Spanishempujar, tirar fuerte (to draw or pull something heavy), llevar, carrear, acarrear, transportar (to carry or transport something heavy or…)

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 haul come from?

From Middle English hālen, hailen, haulen, halien (“to drag, pull; to draw up”), from Old French haler (“to haul, pull”), from Frankish *halōn (“to drag, fetch, haul”) or Middle Dutch halen (“to drag, fetch, haul”), possibly merging with Old English *halian (“to haul, drag”); all from Proto-Germanic *halōną, *halēną, *hulōną (“to call, fetch, summon”), from Proto-Indo-European *kelh₁- (“to call, cry, summon”). The noun is derived from the verb.

Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract).

What to look up after haul