hurtful

Name: hurtful, English Word Data
Creator: Wiktionary
License: https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/

/ˈhɜːtfʊl/

//ˈhɜːtfʊl// adj

By PlainSpell · According to Wiktionary data (CC BY-SA) · analyzed September 3, 2026

The verdict

“hurtful” has 11 generated spelling variants in the English index at frequency #19,617. The variants make it a useful spelling check.

#19,617
frequency rank, English: 2,646
“H” headwords: 11
tracked misspellings: 1
confusable pair

According to Wiktionary data (CC BY-SA, analyzed September 3, 2026) - Tending to impair or damage; injurious; occasioning loss or injury.

Corpus desk

Index EN-hurtful · hurtful · English

hurtful · rank #19,617 · 11 variants · 1 confusable

FREQ-MID #19,617
LEN-LONG 7 letters
VOW-2 2 vowels
CONFUS-LOW 1 pairs
VAR-MID 11 variants
BOOK-MID 2,646
PHOTO-FINISH Hubert

Nearest frequency peer: Hubert (-1 rank slots)

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.

Hemingway

80,387
horizontally

80,386
Hubert

80,385
hurtful

80,384
illuminate

80,383
inaccessible

80,382

What this shows “hurtful” sits among these FrequencyWords peers; misspelling depth is tracked separately in the edit-distance chart.

Visual similarity to commonly confused words

How many letter changes separate each confused pair (Levenshtein distance, normalized).

hurtful vs harmful

71% similar

Source: PlainSpell confusable corpus (Wiktionary, CC BY-SA).

Key facts for hurtful
Property	Value
Headword	hurtful
Language	English
Part of speech	Adjective
IPA	/ˈhɜːtfʊl/
Letters	7
Frequency rank	#19,617
Misspellings tracked	11
Confusable pairs	1
Source	Wiktionary (kaikki.org)

Frequency seat of misspelling magnet “hurtful”

Word frequency stretches from the small set of words we reach for constantly (left) out to the long tail barely used once in a while (right).hurtfullands here:

#19,617

#1#100#1K#10K#100K

← used constantlyrarely used →

Ticks step logarithmically, so each one marks a roughly tenfold drop in how often the word turns up. Same rarity band neighbours include “Hubert” (#19,616), “illuminate” (#19,618), “horizontally” (#19,615). Among 2,646 “H” headwords, “hurtful” is #19,617. Source: FrequencyWords open word-frequency list.

A misspelling magnet

The generator records 11 spelling variants around hurtful (IPA /ˈhɜːtfʊl/), anadjective. Corpus frequency is #19,617 among 2,646 “H” headwords. Wiktionary lists 2 senses, so context still picks the gloss.

Our generated misspelling index lists 11 likely wrong-spelling variants for hurtful, with forms such as "hhurtful", "hrutful", and "hurftul". Each of these forms differs from the correct spelling by one small edit: a doubled letter, a dropped silent letter, or a substituted vowel. It also participates in 1 confusable-pair relationship, "harmful", a pairing that trips writers up because the two words share enough sound or shape to blur together.

Etymologically, the entry records: From hurt + -ful. The correct English form is hurtful, spelled H-U-R-T-F-U-L.

Definition

1
Tending to impair or damage; injurious; occasioning loss or injury.
2
Tending to hurt someone's feelings; insulting; lacerating.

Recorded use

Wiktionary examples

These source excerpts show how hurtful appears in context. They illustrate usage; the definition above remains the entry’s reference meaning.

A good principle not rightly understood may prove as hurtful as a bad.
Well-cultivated soils are often healthy; nor at present has it been proved that the use of manure is hurtful.

Etymology

From hurt + -ful.

This word in other languages

nocivo(Español)blessant(Français)

Common misspellings

Also misspelled as:

hhurtful
hrutful
hurftul
hurrtful
hurtfful
hurtflu
hurtfull
hurttful
hurtufl
hutrful
uhrtful

Misspelling Pattern Breakdown

How far each generated variant is from the correct spelling of hurtful - counted as single-character edits (an insertion, a deletion, or a substituted letter). The larger the bar, the easier the typo is to spot; one-edit slips are the ones that sneak past readers.

Edit distance from "hurtful"

Definitions, pronunciation, and etymology for this entry are drawn from Wiktionary via the kaikki.org structured extract (CC BY-SA); frequency ordering uses the FrequencyWords open word-frequency list (2018 English corpus, MIT). See the methodology for how each field is sourced and updated.

Frequently Asked Questions

How do you spell "hurtful"?

"hurtful" is spelled H-U-R-T-F-U-L. The IPA pronunciation is /ˈhɜːtfʊl/.

What does "hurtful" mean?

As an adjective, "hurtful" means: Tending to impair or damage; injurious; occasioning loss or injury.

What words are commonly confused with "hurtful"?

"hurtful" is commonly confused with "harmful". These words look or sound similar but have different meanings. PlainSpell provides detailed comparisons for each pair.

How do you pronounce "hurtful"?

The IPA (International Phonetic Alphabet) transcription for "hurtful" is /ˈhɜːtfʊl/. Click the speaker icon on the pronunciation badge above to hear it spoken aloud where audio is available.

What is the origin of the word "hurtful"?

From hurt + -ful. See the full etymology section above for more details.

Is PlainSpell free to use?

Yes, PlainSpell is a completely free word reference. You can look up definitions, pronunciations, confusable pairs, homophones, and spelling corrections across 5 languages without any sign-up or subscription.

Similar English words by spelling shape

Same letter count and similar misspelling depth for "hurtful", not the corpus desk frequency band.

Same letter count

Frequency-ranked English headwords with 7 letters (nearest by frequency rank).

inferno#19,621 hastily#19,610 Goddard#19,608 gastric#19,606

Similar misspelling depth

Headwords with a similar count of attested misspellings (11 here; floor ≥5).

McBride11 variants meddling11 variants ecommerce11 variants overtake11 variants