hum and haw
/ˌhʌm ənd ˈhɔː/
"hum-and-haw" is a 9-letter English headword indexed on PlainSpell.
The verdict
“hum and haw” is uncommon English (outside the top frequency list), classed as a verb. The kind of spelling people second-guess.
- Unranked
- below top-frequency English
- 11
- letters
According to Wiktionary data (CC BY-SA, analyzed September 3, 2026) - To procrastinate; to take a long time before doing something or taking a decision.
Corpus desk
Index EN-hum-and-haw · hum and haw · English
hum and haw · unranked · 0 variants · 0 confusables
- FREQ-UNRANKED Unranked
- LEN-MEGA 11 letters
- VOW-3 3 vowels
- CONFUS-0 No pairs
- VAR-0 0 variants
- BOOK-THIN "H" thin
- PHOTO-UNK Peer pending
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.
| Property | Value |
|---|---|
| Headword | hum and haw |
| Language | English |
| Part of speech | Verb |
| IPA | /ˌhʌm ənd ˈhɔː/ |
| Letters | 11 |
| Misspellings tracked | 0 |
| Confusable pairs | 0 |
| Source | Wiktionary (kaikki.org) |
Long-tail rank of “hum and haw” in English
Rare enough to double-check
hum and haw is uncommon English outside the top frequency list, classed as averb, transcribed /ˌhʌm ənd ˈhɔː/. Rarity is why readers land here mid-draft. Gloss: "To procrastinate; to take a long time before doing something or taking a decision.".
Zero misspellings are on record for hum and haw in our index, a sign its spelling follows regular English conventions. It is not paired with a close-neighbour confusable in our dataset, which typically means the spelling is too distinctive to be mistaken for another word.
Our source data has no etymology on file for this entry, so its spelling is best read as a straightforward mapping from sound to letter. The correct English form is hum and haw, spelled H-U-M- -A-N-D- -H-A-W.
Definition
- 1To procrastinate; to take a long time before doing something or taking a decision.
Recorded use
Wiktionary exampleThese source excerpts show how hum and haw appears in context. They illustrate usage; the definition above remains the entry’s reference meaning.
We hummed and hawed before finally deciding to buy this house.
Definitions, pronunciation, and etymology for this entry are drawn from Wiktionary via the kaikki.org structured extract (CC BY-SA). See the methodology for how each field is sourced and updated.