hesitate
/ˈhɛz.ə.teɪt/verb
hesitate is spelled H-E-S-I-T-A-T-E. The wrong spelling people search most is hesistate: about 50 Bing searches a month in the United States (September 2025 to August 2026), about 1 in 23 of all searches for the word. Hesitate is a verb meaning “To stop or pause respecting decision or action; to be in suspense or uncertainty as to a determination”.
How many letters and syllables are in hesitate?
| Letters | 8: H-E-S-I-T-A-T-E |
|---|---|
| Syllables | 3 (from its American pronunciation) |
| In writing | 6.2 times per million words; the 9,735th most frequent word form |
| Wrong spellings searched | 1; the most searched, hesistate, about 50 Bing searches a month (all of them) |
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).
How do you spell hesitate?
Hesitate is spelled H-E-S-I-T-A-T-E. One wrong spelling is searched or written often enough to measure; together they are about 1 in 23 of the searches for hesitate 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 hesitate?
Hesitate appears 6.2 times per million words in written English, the 9,735th 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 hesitate?
- UK /ˈhɛz.ɪ.teɪt/
- US /ˈhɛz.ə.teɪt/
- Australia /ˈhez.ə.tæɪt/
Hesitate has 3 syllables (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)-Vealhurl-hesitate.wav, Wikimedia Commons (author and licence on each file's page).
Forms of hesitate
- hesitates present, singular, he/she/it
- hesitating participle, present
- hesitated participle, past
Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract).
What does hesitate mean?
The meanings the English Wiktionary records, quoted as written there (source below).
verb
- 1
To stop or pause respecting decision or action; to be in suspense or uncertainty as to a determination.
He hesitated whether to accept the offer or not; men often hesitate in forming a judgment.
- 2
To stammer; to falter in speaking.
- 3
rareTo utter with hesitation or to intimate by a reluctant manner.
Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract).
Hesitate in Spanish, French, German and Portuguese
| Language | Words |
|---|---|
| French | hésiter |
| German | zögern , stammeln |
| Portuguese | hesitar, vacilar, titubear |
| Spanish | vacilar, dudar, hesitar, titubear |
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 hesitate come from?
Borrowed from Latin haesitātus, perfect passive participle of haesitō (see -ate (verb-forming suffix)), intensive of haereō (“to hesitate, stick fast; to hang or hold fast”). Displaced native Old English wandian.
Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract).