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PlainSpell

hire

/ˈhaɪɹ/noun, verb

hire is spelled H-I-R-E: 4 letters and 2 syllables. It appears 25 times per million words in written English, the 3,612th most frequent word form (wordfreq, 2021 data). As a noun, hire means “A person who has been hired, especially in a cohort” (English Wiktionary, September 2026). The plural of hire is hires.

How many letters and syllables are in hire?

Letters4: H-I-R-E
Syllables2 (from its American pronunciation)
In writing25 times per million words; the 3,612th 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 hire?

Hire appears 25 times per million words in written English, the 3,612th 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 hire?

  • UK /ˈhaɪ(.)ə/
  • US /ˈhaɪɹ/
  • US /ˈhɑɪ.əɹ/

Hire has 2 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-hire.wav, Wikimedia Commons (author and licence on each file's page).

Words people confuse with hire

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

higher vs hire0 B

Sounds like: higher (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 hire?

11 words on PlainSpell end in the same sounds as hire from its last stressed vowel (/aɪɹ/):

Spelled with the same letters in another order: heir.

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 hire

  • hires plural, present, singular, he/she/it
  • hiring participle, present
  • hired participle, past

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

What does hire mean?

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

noun

  1. 1

    A person who has been hired, especially in a cohort.

    We pair up each of our new hires with one of our original hires.

  2. 2

    The state of being hired, or having a job; employment.

    When my grandfather retired, he had over twenty mechanics in his hire.

  3. 3

    Payment for the temporary use of something.

    The sign offered pedalos on hire.

  4. 4

    obsoleteReward.

verb

  1. 1

    AustraliaUKTo obtain the services of in return for fixed payment.

    We hired a car for two weeks because ours had broken down.

  2. 2

    UKTo occupy premises in exchange for rent.

  3. 3

    To employ; to obtain the services of (a person) in exchange for remuneration; to give someone a job.

    The company had problems when it tried to hire more skilled workers.

  4. 4

    To exchange the services of for remuneration.

    They hired themselves out as day laborers.  They hired out their basement for Inauguration week.

  5. 5

    UKTo accomplish by paying for services.

    After waiting two years for her husband to finish the tiling, she decided to hire it done.

  6. 6

    To accept employment.

    They hired out as day laborers.

  7. 7

    (neologism) (in the Jobs-to-be-Done Theory) To buy something in order for it to perform a function, to do a job

    They hired a milkshake.

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

Hire in Spanish, French, German and Portuguese

LanguageWords
Germanunter Vertrag (the state of being hired, or having a job…), Hilfsarbeiter, Saisonarbeiter (a person who has been hired), mieten, heuern (to obtain the services of in return for fixed…), anwerben (to employ)
Portugueseemprego (the state of being hired, or having a job…), contratado (a person who has been hired), contratar, alugar (to obtain the services of in return for fixed…), empregar (to employ)
Spanishalquiler (the state of being hired, or having a job…), empleado (a person who has been hired), contratar, emplear (to employ)
Frenchlouer (to obtain the services of in return for fixed…), embaucher, employer, recruter, engager (to employ)

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 hire come from?

From Middle English hire, hyre, here, hure, from Old English hȳr (“employment for wages; pay for service; interest on money lent”), from Proto-West Germanic *hūʀiju (“payment”), from the verb *hūʀijan, from Proto-Germanic *hūzijaną, from Proto-Indo-European *kewHs- or *kweHs-. Compare Hittite 𒆪𒊭𒀭 (kuššan-, “fee, pay, wages, price”).

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

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