hoarse
/hɔːs/adjective, verb
hoarse is spelled H-O-A-R-S-E: 6 letters and one syllable. It appears about once in every 2 million words in written English, the 43,663rd most frequent word form (wordfreq, 2021 data). As an adjective, hoarse means “Having a dry, harsh tone to the voice, as a result of a sore throat, age, emotion, etc” (English Wiktionary, September 2026).
How many letters and syllables are in hoarse?
| Letters | 6: H-O-A-R-S-E |
|---|---|
| Syllables | 1 (from its American pronunciation) |
| In writing | about once in every 2 million words; the 43,663rd most frequent word form |
| Wrong spellings searched | none 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 hoarse?
Hoarse appears about once in every 2 million words in written English, the 43,663rd 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 hoarse?
- UK /hɔːs/
- British /hoːs/
- /hoɾs/
Hoarse 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-us-hoarse.ogg, Wikimedia Commons (author and licence on each file's page).
Words people confuse with hoarse
Word pairs people search, with the monthly searches for “a vs b” (G: Google, B: Bing, United States).
Sounds like: horse (Wiktionary's homophone list; some hold only in some accents).
Also written: horse.
Sources: Google and Bing searches (September 2025 to August 2026, through DataForSEO); English Wiktionary (homophones, alternative spellings).
What rhymes with hoarse?
3 words on PlainSpell end in the same sounds as hoarse from its last stressed vowel (/ɔs/, British pronunciation):
Spelled with the same letters in another order: ashore.
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 hoarse
- hoarser comparative
- hoarsest superlative
- hoarses present, singular, he/she/it
- hoarsing participle, present
- hoarsed participle, past
Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract).
What does hoarse mean?
The meanings the English Wiktionary records, quoted as written there (source below).
adjective
- 1
Having a dry, harsh tone to the voice, as a result of a sore throat, age, emotion, etc.
verb
- 1
To utter hoarsely; to croak.
Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract).
Hoarse in Spanish, French, German and Portuguese
In the sense afflicted by a dry, quite harsh voice:
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 hoarse come from?
From Middle English hors, hos, from Old English hās, *hārs, from Proto-Germanic *haisaz, *haisraz, akin to Old Norse háss (West Norse) and heiss (East Norse) (whence Icelandic hás, Norwegian Nynorsk hås, Norwegian Bokmål hes and Swedish hes).
Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract).