hurting

noun

"hurting" is a 7-letter English headword indexed on PlainSpell.

The verdict

“hurting” is a regularly-used English word, ranked #5,974 in English word frequency and used as a noun.

#5,974
frequency rank, English
7
letters
11
tracked misspellings
19
confusable pairs

According to Wiktionary data (CC BY-SA, analyzed May 6, 2026) - A sensation that hurts.

Visual similarity to commonly confused words

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

hurting vs hustling
75% similar
hurting vs hurtling
88% similar
hurting vs hiring
71% similar

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

Key facts for hurting
PropertyValue
Headwordhurting
LanguageEnglish
Part of speechNoun
Letters7
Frequency rank#5,974
Misspellings tracked11
Confusable pairs19
SourceWiktionary (kaikki.org)

Where “hurting” sits in English frequency

Every-word frequency runs from the handful of words we use constantly (left) to the long tail used once in a blue moon (right). hurting lands here:

#1#100#1K#10K#100K
← used constantlyrarely used →

Scale is logarithmic (each tick is 10× rarer). Source: FrequencyWords open word-frequency list.

Spelling & Dictionary Insight

The English entry for hurting is 7 letters long, classified as a noun. Corpus data places it at rank #5,974 in overall English word frequency, indicating it appears regularly in written and spoken text. The dominant gloss from Wiktionary reads: "A sensation that hurts.".

Our generated misspelling index lists 11 likely wrong-spelling variants for hurting, with forms such as "hhurting", "hruting", and "huritng". Every one of these variants traces to a single-character edit -- an added or dropped letter, a swapped consonant, or a vowel swap -- the kind of slip a spell-checker is built to catch. It also participates in 19 confusable-pair relationships, "hustling", "hurtling", "hiring", and more, since the words sound or look close enough that writers reach for the wrong one mid-sentence.

This headword's origin isn't recorded in our source data, so its spelling is easiest to reason about phoneme by phoneme, absent a documented history. The correct English form is hurting, spelled H-U-R-T-I-N-G.

Definition

  1. 1
    A sensation that hurts.

Common misspellings

Also misspelled as: hhurting,hruting,huritng,hurrting,hurtign,hurtingg,hurtinng,hurtnig,hurtting,hutring,uhrting

Misspelling Pattern Breakdown

How far each generated variant is from the correct spelling of hurting - expressed in single-character edits (insert, delete, or swap one letter). Bigger bars stand out at a glance; a one-edit slip is the hardest to catch.

hhurting1hruting2huritng2hurrting1hurtign2hurtingg1hurtinng1hurtnig2
Edit distance from "hurting"

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 "hurting"?
"hurting" is spelled H-U-R-T-I-N-G.
What does "hurting" mean?
As a noun, "hurting" means: A sensation that hurts.
What words are commonly confused with "hurting"?
"hurting" is commonly confused with "hustling", "hurtling", "hiring". These words look or sound similar but have different meanings. PlainSpell provides detailed comparisons for each pair.
What language does "hurting" come from?
"hurting" is a English word. PlainSpell's reference spans five languages -- English, Spanish, Portuguese, French, and German -- with definitions, pronunciations, and spelling data for each.
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.

Using “hurting”

The practical upshot for anyone who landed here from a spell-check.

  • The one correct English spelling is H-U-R-T-I-N-G - every other letter order is a misspelling in standard orthography.
  • Don't mix it up with “hustling” - see the side-by-side comparison. hurting vs hustling
  • Browse more English words and confusable pairs in the same reference. English words
Data Source

Wiktionary (via kaikki.org), licensed under CC BY-SA & GFDL. Word ordering uses an open word-frequency list; misspelling variants are generated by edit-distance from the correct headword.

Source: Wiktionary (via kaikki.org) Structured Wiktionary extract

Source: FrequencyWords open word-frequency list FrequencyWords open word-frequency list