hunt
/hʌnt/verb, noun
hunt is spelled H-U-N-T: 4 letters and one syllable. It appears 31 times per million words in written English, the 3,052nd most frequent word form (wordfreq, 2021 data). As a verb, hunt means “To find or search for an animal in the wild with the intention of killing the animal for its meat or for sport” (English Wiktionary, September 2026).
How many letters and syllables are in hunt?
| Letters | 4: H-U-N-T |
|---|---|
| Syllables | 1 (from its American pronunciation) |
| In writing | 31 times per million words; the 3,052nd most frequent word form |
| Wrong spellings searched | none measured in search |
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).
How common is hunt?
Hunt appears 31 times per million words in written English, the 3,052nd 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 hunt?
- /hʌnt/
- /hʊnt/
Hunt 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-hunt.ogg, Wikimedia Commons (author and licence on each file's page).
Forms of hunt
- hunts present, singular, he/she/it, plural
- hunting participle, present
- hunted participle, past
Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract).
What does hunt mean?
The meanings the English Wiktionary records, quoted as written there (source below).
verb
- 1
To find or search for an animal in the wild with the intention of killing the animal for its meat or for sport.
State Wildlife Management areas often offer licensed hunters the opportunity to hunt on public lands.
- 2
To try to find something; search (for).
The little girl was hunting for shells on the beach.
- 3
To drive; to chase; with down, from, away, etc.
to hunt down a criminal
- 4
To use or manage (dogs, horses, etc.) in hunting.
Did you hunt that pony last week?
- 5
To use or traverse in pursuit of game.
He hunts the woods, or the country.
- 6
To move or shift the order of (a bell) in a regular course of changes.
- 7
To shift up and down in order regularly.
- 8
To be in a state of instability of movement or forced oscillation, as a governor which has a large movement of the balls for small change of load, an arc-lamp clutch mechanism which moves rapidly up and down with variations of current, etc.; also, to seesaw, as a pair of alternators working in parallel.
noun
- 1
The act of hunting.
- 2
A hunting expedition.
- 3
An organization devoted to hunting, or the people belonging to it.
- 4
A pack of hunting dogs.
Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract).
Hunt in Spanish, French, German and Portuguese
| Language | Words |
|---|---|
| French | chasser , chercher , chasse |
| German | jagen , suchen , Jagd |
| Portuguese | caçar, vear , caça , caçada |
| Spanish | cazar , buscar , caza , partida de caza, cacería, cazata |
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 hunt come from?
From Middle English hunten, from Old English huntian (“to hunt”), from Proto-West Germanic *huntōn (“to hunt, capture”), possibly from Proto-Indo-European *ḱent- (“to catch, seize”). Related to Old High German hunda (“booty”), Gothic 𐌷𐌿𐌽𐌸𐍃 (hunþs, “body of captives”), Old English hūþ (“plunder, booty, prey”), Old English hentan (“to catch, seize”). More at hent, hint. In some areas read as a collective form of hound by folk etymology.
Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract).