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.
Noun
He won a medal in the high hurdles.
The company faces severe financial hurdles this year. Verb
The horse hurdled the fence.
Recent Examples on the Web
Noun
However, there is now a big new hurdle when signing up for Guilded.—PCMAG, 19 July 2024 For all that sentimentality, however, the trip figures to come with logistical hurdles for the Dodgers — who will become the first team in MLB history to open consecutive seasons with international trips.—Jack Harris, Los Angeles Times, 18 July 2024
Verb
Though the company has a small share of the streaming market, Hollywood is hurdling toward a direction incentivizing dual roles as content suppliers and distributors.—Winston Cho, The Hollywood Reporter, 3 Sep. 2019 For companies attempting to create vaccines, the program reduced costs and uncertainty by providing standards that stipulated the research hurdles a company had to clear to receive government support.—Gordon H. Hanson, Foreign Affairs, 28 Feb. 2023 See all Example Sentences for hurdle
These examples are programmatically compiled from various online sources to illustrate current usage of the word 'hurdle.' Any opinions expressed in the examples do not represent those of Merriam-Webster or its editors. Send us feedback about these examples.
Word History
Etymology
Noun and Verb
Middle English hurdel, from Old English hyrdel; akin to Old High German hurt hurdle, Latin cratis wickerwork, hurdle
First Known Use
Noun
before the 12th century, in the meaning defined at sense 1a
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