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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
Erik Kain, Forbes.com, 22 June 2025
Solar flares emit radiation, mostly in the form of ultraviolet light and X-rays, that can hurtle toward Earth at the speed of light.
—Eric Lagatta, USA Today, 19 June 2025
To love is to be a commuting soldier, to fight to traverse the tragedy of loving amidst the tragedy of racial capitalism, to hurtle toward freedom in a death trap going 60mph.
—Rosie Stockton
may 29, Literary Hub, 29 May 2025
Vera, or Faith’s titular protagonist is struggling to make friends at school and worried that her Russian immigrant dad and her WASP-y stepmom are hurtling towards divorce.
—Shannon Carlin, Time, 22 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 5 Jul. 2025.
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