haul
/hɔːl/
"haul" is a 4-letter English headword indexed on PlainSpell.
The verdict
“haul” has 5 generated spelling variants in the English index at frequency #8,551. The variants make it a useful spelling check.
- #8,551
- frequency rank, English
- 2,646
- “H” headwords
- 5
- tracked misspellings
- 20
- confusable pairs
According to Wiktionary data (CC BY-SA, analyzed September 3, 2026) - To transport by drawing or pulling, as with horses or oxen, or a motor vehicle.
Corpus desk
Index EN-haul · haul · English
haul · rank #8,551 · 5 variants · 20 confusables
- FREQ-COMMON #8,551
- LEN-MID 4 letters
- VOW-2 2 vowels
- CONFUS-HIGH 20 pairs
- VAR-MID 5 variants
- BOOK-MID 2,646
- PHOTO-FINISH header
Nearest frequency peer: header (+1 rank slots)
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.
Frequency neighbourhood for “haul”
Lower corpus rank = more everyday usage (inverted bar length for readability)
- gossip
gossip
91,454 corpus weight
- GP
GP
91,453 corpus weight
- haul
haul
91,450 corpus weight
- header
header
91,449 corpus weight
- headphones
headphones
91,448 corpus weight
- holly
holly
91,446 corpus weight
What this shows Bars show where “haul” sits against the nearest ranked English headwords in the FrequencyWords band, not a reprint of letter-browse containment.
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 | haul |
| Language | English |
| Part of speech | Verb |
| IPA | /hɔːl/ |
| Letters | 4 |
| Frequency rank | #8,551 |
| Misspellings tracked | 5 |
| Confusable pairs | 20 |
| Source | Wiktionary (kaikki.org) |
Where “haul” sits in English frequency
A misspelling magnet
The generator records 5 spelling variants around haul (IPA /hɔːl/), averb. Corpus frequency is #8,551 among 2,646 “H” headwords. Wiktionary lists 9 senses, so context still picks the gloss.
Our generated misspelling index lists 5 likely wrong-spelling variants for haul, with forms such as "ahul", "halu", and "haull". 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, "Hu", "huh", "hug", and more, a pairing that trips writers up because the two words share enough sound or shape to blur together.
Etymologically, the entry records: 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… The correct English form is haul, spelled H-A-U-L.
Definition
- 1To transport by drawing or pulling, as with horses or oxen, or a motor vehicle.
- 2To draw or pull something heavy.
- 3To carry or transport something, with a connotation that the item is heavy or otherwise difficult to move.
- 4To drag, to pull, to tug.
- 5Followed by up: to summon to be disciplined or held answerable for something.
- 6To pull apart, as oxen sometimes do when yoked.
- 7To steer (a vessel) closer to the wind.
- 8Of the wind: to shift fore (more towards the bow).
- 9To haul ass (“go fast”).
Recorded use
Wiktionary examplesThese source excerpts show how haul appears in context. They illustrate usage; the definition above remains the entry’s reference meaning.
to haul logs to a sawmill
When I was seven or eight years of age, I began hauling all the wood used in the house and shops. I could not load it on the wagons, of course, at the time, but I could drive [the horses], and the choppers would load, and some one at the house unload.
Etymology
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. Cognates The word is cognate with Danish hale (“to haul”), Middle Dutch halen (“to draw, fetch, haul”), Dutch halen (“to fetch, bring, haul”), Old Frisian halia, Saterland Frisian halen (“to draw, haul, pull”), Low German halen (“to draw, pull”), Old High German halôn, holôn, German holen (“to fetch, get”), Norwegian hale (“to haul”), Old Saxon halôn (“to fetch, get”), Swedish hala (“to hale, haul, pull, tug”), and related to Old English ġeholian (“to get, obtain”).
This word in other languages
Common misspellings
Also misspelled as:
- ahul
- halu
- haull
- hhaul
- hual
Misspelling Pattern Breakdown
How far each generated variant is from the correct spelling of haul - counted as single-character edits (an insertion, a deletion, or a substituted letter). The larger the bar, the easier the typo is to spot; one-edit slips are the ones that sneak past readers.
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.
PlainSpell is rendered directly from structured Wiktionary extracts and open word-frequency lists, no number is typed in by an editor. See our editorial standards & corrections policy, the methodology behind these numbers, or report a data error. Data current as of September 3, 2026. Primary sources: Wiktionary (via kaikki.org) and FrequencyWords.
Frequently Asked Questions
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Similar English words by spelling shape
Same letter count and similar misspelling depth for "haul", not the corpus desk frequency band.
Same letter count
Frequency-ranked English headwords with 4 letters (nearest by frequency rank).
Similar misspelling depth
Headwords with a similar count of attested misspellings (5 here; floor ≥5).
What to do next
You've looked up "haul". Here's where to go from here.
- "haul" maps to 20 confusable pairs in this vintage; the highest-scored is "Hu". View pair
- 5 edit-distance misspelling variants are generated for spell-check research on this headword. See variants
- Usage frequency rank #8,551 among English headwords in this corpus. Corpus statistics
- Browse more English words in the "H" letter cohort. H–Z browse
- PlainSpell rotates a curated Word of the Day from the English corpus, a passive way to discover vocabulary. Word of the Day
PlainSpell is a reference corpus, not spelling advice. Verify unusual forms in context.
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.