hunt vs hurt, What's the Difference?

Which to use

“hunt” is a noun and “hurt” is a verb - they look or sound alike but fill different roles in a sentence.

#15,645
“hunt” frequency rank: #47,383
“hurt” frequency rank: 63028
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature	hunt	hurt
Definition	Chasse.	Blesser, endolorir, faire du mal.

Where the spellings diverge

Shared letters are muted; the letters that actually set hunt and hurt apart are highlighted. They share 3 letters in sequence, which is exactly why the eye skips the difference.

4 ch

hunt

4 ch

hurt

Spelling & Dictionary Insight

These two trip readers on the page rather than in the ear: hunt is \hʌnt\ while hurt is \ˈhɝt\. Spoken aloud the problem disappears. In writing it persists, because they differ by a single letter - n in “hunt” becomes r in “hurt”, and the parts of speech differ too (noun vs verb), which is usually the fastest check. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 63028, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

hunt is recorded at frequency rank #15,645, classified as anoun, pronounced \hʌnt\. hurt is at rank #47,383, tagged as averb, pronounced \ˈhɝt\.

Glosses for this pair are partially populated in our dataset, but the full side-by-side definitions above should still guide you to the right choice.

With a confusion score of 63028, this pair ranks #84,041 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - among the most confusable pairs.

Orthographic DNA of hunt vs hurt

Shared letters: htu. Private to "hunt": n. Private to "hurt": r.

"hunt" · 4 letters · shape CVCC · "hurt" · 4 letters · shape CVCC

Known mistypes of this pair

hunt ← hhunt · hnut · hunnt · huntt · hutn · uhnt
hurt ← hhurt · hrut · hurrt · hurtt · hutr · uhrt

Frequency comparison

hunt#15,645

hurt#47,383

Source: FrequencyWords open word-frequency list

Frequently Asked Questions

Can "hunt" and "hurt" be used interchangeably?

No - they are not even the same part of speech. "hunt" is a noun and "hurt" a verb, so a sentence built for one is usually ungrammatical with the other.

Which is more common, "hunt" or "hurt"?

"hunt" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #15,645 in our French list, against #47,383 for "hurt". The two are close in frequency, so neither is a safe default; check the meaning rather than guessing.

Remembering hunt vs hurt

The fastest way to pick the right one every time.

Check the role first: if you need a noun, it's “hunt”; for a verb, it's “hurt”.
See each word in full, definition, IPA, etymology and its other confusables. Full “hunt” entry
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