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Hurdle vs. Hurtle
Indistinguishable in speech, the words hurtle and hurdle can be a confusing pair.
Hurtle is a verb with two meanings: "to move rapidly or forcefully," as in "The stone was hurtling through the air," and "to hurl or fling," as in "I hurtled the stone into the air." Note that the first use is intransitive: the stone isn't hurtling anything; it itself is simply hurtling. The second use is transitive: something was hurtled—in this case, a stone.
Hurdle is both a noun and a verb. As a noun, its most common meanings have to do with barriers: the ones that runners leap over, and the metaphorical extension of these, the figurative barriers and obstacles we try to similarly overcome. The verb hurdle has two meanings, and they are directly related to these. It can mean "to leap over especially while running," as in "She hurdled the fence," and it can mean "to overcome or surmount," as in "They've had to hurdle significant financial obstacles." The verb hurdle is always transitive; that is, there's always a thing being hurdled, whether it be a physical obstacle or a metaphorical one.
Examples of hurtle in a Sentence
Alexa Herrera, CBS News, 11 May 2026
When the slo-mo replay showed the San Antonio Spurs star looking right at Naz Reid before hurtling an elbow into the Minnesota Timberwolves big man’s throat, everyone in the building knew what was coming next.
—Jared Weiss, New York Times, 11 May 2026
The fuel levy suspension is hurtling toward the exact same political brick wall.
—Tiisetso Motsoeneng, semafor.com, 8 May 2026
On their trip home, the crew — NASA astronauts commander Reid Wiseman, mission pilot Victor Glover, mission specialist Christina Koch, and Canadian Space Agency mission specialist Jeremy Hansen — hurtled back through Earth's atmosphere before splashing down in the Pacific Ocean on April 10.
—Chelsea Gohd, Space.com, 8 May 2026
See All Example Sentences for hurtle
Cite this Entry
“Hurtle.” Merriam-Webster.com Dictionary, Merriam-Webster, https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/hurtle. Accessed 13 May. 2026.
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