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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
Bethanne Patrick, Los Angeles Times, 1 June 2025
As the massive objects hurtled toward one another at more than 1.1 million miles per hour (1.8 million kilometers per hour), one galaxy repeatedly pierced the other with intense radiation.
—Ashley Strickland, CNN Money, 25 May 2025
At last, a glass-walled elevator to the restaurant will shoot you upward at thrill-ride speed, hurtling through the hotel’s vertiginous atrium, past the open-plan gym and seemingly endless hotel-room floors, before opening onto the smiling faces of hosts behind a reception desk.
—Helen Rosner, New Yorker, 18 May 2025
The boat capsized, hurtling Pino, his wife, his daughter and 11 of her teenage friends into the water.
—David Goodhue, Miami Herald, 9 May 2025
See All Example Sentences for hurtle
Cite this Entry
“Hurtle.” Merriam-Webster.com Dictionary, Merriam-Webster, https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/hurtle. Accessed 24 Jun. 2025.
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