love-hate
/ˌlʌvˈheɪt/
"love-hate" is a 8-letter English headword indexed on PlainSpell.
The verdict
“love-hate” is uncommon English (outside the top frequency list), classed as an adjective. The kind of spelling people second-guess.
- Unranked
- below top-frequency English
- 9
- letters
According to Wiktionary data (CC BY-SA, analyzed September 3, 2026) - Of a relationship: involving feelings of both love and hate, often simultaneously.
Corpus desk
Index EN-love-hate · love-hate · English
love-hate · unranked · 0 variants · 0 confusables
- FREQ-UNRANKED Unranked
- LEN-LONG 9 letters
- VOW-4 4 vowels
- CONFUS-0 No pairs
- VAR-0 0 variants
- BOOK-THIN "L" 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 | love-hate |
| Language | English |
| Part of speech | Adjective |
| IPA | /ˌlʌvˈheɪt/ |
| Letters | 9 |
| Misspellings tracked | 0 |
| Confusable pairs | 0 |
| Source | Wiktionary (kaikki.org) |
Long-tail rank of “love-hate” in English
Rare enough to double-check
love-hate is uncommon English outside the top frequency list, classed as anadjective, transcribed /ˌlʌvˈheɪt/. Rarity is why readers land here mid-draft. Gloss: "Of a relationship: involving feelings of both love and hate, often simultaneously.".
The misspelling generator found no plausible variants for love-hate, and the word's spelling is regular enough that our generator found nothing worth flagging. This headword has no recorded confusable partner, since no other headword is close enough in sound or shape to pair with it.
Etymologically, the entry records: The adjective is a calque of German Liebe-Hass (now more commonly Hassliebe (“love-hate relationship”)), from Liebe (“love; relationship of love”) (ultimately from Proto-Indo-European *lewbʰ- (“to love”)) + Hass (“hate; hatred”) (ultimately from Proto-Indo-… The correct English form is love-hate, spelled L-O-V-E---H-A-T-E.
Definition
- 1Of a relationship: involving feelings of both love and hate, often simultaneously.
Recorded use
Wiktionary examplesThese source excerpts show how love-hate appears in context. They illustrate usage; the definition above remains the entry’s reference meaning.
The krogan have had a love-hate relationship with varren for millennia, alternately fighting them for territory and embracing them as treasured companions.
I loathe reviews in which a critic claims to have love-hate feelings about a work of art. It’s a way of having no opinion at all. But I love and hate “Taipei.”
Etymology
The adjective is a calque of German Liebe-Hass (now more commonly Hassliebe (“love-hate relationship”)), from Liebe (“love; relationship of love”) (ultimately from Proto-Indo-European *lewbʰ- (“to love”)) + Hass (“hate; hatred”) (ultimately from Proto-Indo-European *keh₂d- (“anger; hatred”)). The verb is derived from the adjective.
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.