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
Examples are automatically compiled from online sources to
show current usage.Read More
Opinions expressed in the examples do not represent those of Merriam-Webster or its editors.
Send us feedback.
Noun
In 2024, the comp committee canceled 300,000 stock options subject to the $400 hurdle and modified the criterion for 550,000 stock options subject to the $350 hurdle to require that Corpay hit a closing stock price at or above $350 for at least three trading days by the end of 2024.—Amanda Gerut, Fortune, 5 Oct. 2025 Ren also noted practical hurdles.—Aamir Khollam, Interesting Engineering, 3 Oct. 2025
Verb
In the first half of Baylor's 48-7 win at CPA, the five-star junior running back juked a defender and smoothly hurdled clean over another on his way to the end zone, but the hurdle — which isn't allowed in high school football — drew a penalty which negated the play.—Jacob Shames, Nashville Tennessean, 24 Sep. 2025 Wedding Dashers features a maid of honor and best man forced to hurdle relentless transportation nightmares together to make it from London to Belfast in time for their dearests’ nuptials.—Jamie Harrow, PEOPLE, 16 Sep. 2025 See All Example Sentences for hurdle
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
Share