hub
/hʌb/noun
hub is spelled H-U-B: 3 letters and one syllable. It appears 12 times per million words in written English, the 6,230th most frequent word form (wordfreq, 2021 data). As a noun, hub means “The central part, usually cylindrical, of a wheel; the nave” (English Wiktionary, September 2026). The plural of hub is hubs.
How many letters and syllables are in hub?
| Letters | 3: H-U-B |
|---|---|
| Syllables | 1 (from its American pronunciation) |
| In writing | 12 times per million words; the 6,230th most frequent word form |
| Wrong spellings searched | none measured in search |
| 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); rhymes and same-letter words are computed by PlainSpell from its own word list.
How common is hub?
Hub appears 12 times per million words in written English, the 6,230th 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 hub?
- /hʌb/
- /hʊb/
Hub 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-hub.ogg, Wikimedia Commons (author and licence on each file's page).
What rhymes with hub?
No other word on PlainSpell ends in the same sounds as hub.
Spelled with the same letters in another order: hbu.
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 hub
- hubs plural
Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract).
What does hub mean?
The meanings the English Wiktionary records, quoted as written there (source below).
noun
- 1
The central part, usually cylindrical, of a wheel; the nave.
- 2
A point where many routes meet and traffic is distributed, dispensed, or diverted.
Hong Kong International Airport is one of the most important air traffic hubs in Asia.
- 3
A central facility providing a range of related services, such as a medical hub or an educational hub.
- 4
A computer networking device connecting several Ethernet ports. See switch.
- 5
A stake with a nail in it, used to mark a temporary point.
- 6
A male weasel; a buck; a dog; a jack.
- 7
USA rough protuberance or projecting obstruction.
a hub in the road
- 8
An area in a video game from which individual levels are accessed.
Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract).
Hub in Spanish, French, German and Portuguese
| Language | Words |
|---|---|
| French | moyeu , carrefour, pôle , concentrateur, commutateur , cale |
| German | Nabe, Radnabe , Drehkreuz, Drehscheibe, Knotenpunkt, Zentrum |
| Portuguese | cubo de roda , cruzamento, entroncamento , hub , poste |
| Spanish | buje, maza , distribuidor vial, nudo, centro, punto de transbordo |
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 hub come from?
From earlier hubbe, which has the same immediate origin as hob. Hub was originally a dialectal word; its ultimate origin is unknown. Compare German Hubbel (“bump on a surface”), from Proto-West Germanic *hubil (“bump, hill”) (which contains a diminutive suffix *-il); compare English hive, or perhaps ultimately from the same root as hip or hop.
Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract).