hurtle
Definition, pronunciation, etymology, and usage for the English word. Free spelling reference powered by Wiktionary.
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6 characters
Language
English
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Detailed reference entry for the English word "hurtle", 6-letters, with pronunciation in International Phonetic Alphabet notation, etymology traced through Germanic and Romance roots where applicable, common misspelling variants catalogued from Hunspell error dictionaries, and usage frequency ranked against the top 100,000 English words in the Wordfreq corpus. PlainSpell covers English, Spanish, Portuguese, French, and German spelling with confusable-pair detection that highlights visually and phonetically similar words. This entry for "hurtle" includes synonyms, antonyms, homophones, and cross-language translation pointers sourced from Wiktionary via the kaikki.org extract. Whether you are verifying the correct spelling of "hurtle" for academic writing, checking homophone confusion, or exploring etymological origins, this page provides a citation-backed, free reference that requires no sign-up.
hurtle is aEnglishverb. It means: To propel or throw (something) hard or violently; to fling, to hurl. Pronounced /ˈhɜːtl̩/.
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Browse all word comparisons →| Property | Value |
|---|---|
| Headword | hurtle |
| Language | English |
| Part of speech | Verb |
| IPA | /ˈhɜːtl̩/ |
| Letters | 6 |
| Frequency rank | #90,558 |
| Misspellings tracked | 0 |
| Confusable pairs | 0 |
| Source | Wiktionary (kaikki.org) |
Frequency rank visualization
Spelling & Dictionary Insight
The English entry for hurtle is 6 letters long, classified as averb, and transcribed in the International Phonetic Alphabet as /ˈhɜːtl̩/. Corpus data places it at rank #90,558 in overall English word frequency, marking it as uncommon enough that many writers pause before typing it.Wiktionary records 7 distinct senses for this headword, so context determines which meaning a reader should apply.
No frequent misspelling variants are recorded for hurtle in our index, suggesting the orthography either follows predictable English patterns or the word is uncommon enough that typo corpora lack signal.It is not paired with a close-neighbour confusable in our dataset, which tends to mean the word is visually distinctive enough to stand on its own.
Etymologically, the entry records: The verb is derived from Middle English hurtelen, hurtlen (“to cast, hurl, throw; to charge at; to clash in combat, fight; to collide; to injure; to knock down; to propel, push, thrust; to rush; to stumble”) [and other forms], from hurten (“to injure, wound… Root origin matters for spelling because borrowed morphemes (Greek, Latin, Old French, Old English) carry their source-language orthographic conventions into modern English, which is why historical etymology is often the cleanest predictor of whether a cluster like "-ough", "-eau", or "-tion" will appear. For readers arriving here from a spelling check, the authoritative guidance is: the correct English form is hurtle, spelled H-U-R-T-L-E, and any other sequence of those letters, regardless of how natural it feels, is a misspelling in standard orthography.
Definition
- 1To propel or throw (something) hard or violently; to fling, to hurl.
- 2To cause (someone or something) to collide with or hit another person or thing; or (two people or things) to collide with or hit each other.
- 3To attack or criticize (someone) verbally or in writing.
- 4To move rapidly, violently, or without control, especially in a noisy manner.
- 5Of a person or thing: to collide with or hit another person or thing, especially with force or violence; also, of two people or things: to collide together; to clash.
- 6To make a sound of things clashing or colliding together; to clatter, to rattle; hence, to move with such a sound.
- 7Of two people, etc.: to meet in a shocking or violent encounter; to clash; to jostle.
Etymology
The verb is derived from Middle English hurtelen, hurtlen (“to cast, hurl, throw; to charge at; to clash in combat, fight; to collide; to injure; to knock down; to propel, push, thrust; to rush; to stumble”) [and other forms], from hurten (“to injure, wound, hurt (physically or figuratively); to damage, impair; to hurt one’s feelings, humiliate; to receive an injury; to collide into; to propel, push, thrust; to stumble”) (see further at English hurt (verb)) + -el-, -elen (frequentative suffix). The English word is analysable as hurt (“(obsolete) to knock; to strike”) + -le (frequentative suffix). The noun is derived from the verb.
This word in other languages
Frequency rank: #90,558 in English
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Nearby English words
Other entries that begin with the letter H in our English index: