Hurdle

How to spell hurdle

6 letters · 2 syllables

How to pronounce hurdle

Say the part in capitals loudest.

What does hurdle mean?

1. nounA barrier to be jumped over in a race, or any difficulty that must be overcome.
2. verbTo jump over a barrier, especially while running.

Hurdle in a sentence

• noun

  The visa application was the final hurdle before they could relocate abroad.

• verb

  The athletes had to hurdle each barrier without breaking their stride.

• noun

  She clipped the third hurdle but still finished the sprint in record time.

• verb

  The dog learned to hurdle the low garden fence on command.

Where does hurdle come from?

Language of origin: Germanic

This word comes from the Old English hyrdel, which named a portable frame made of interwoven twigs or wattle, used to make temporary fencing and pens for livestock. It belongs to a wider Germanic family of words for woven barriers, related to the Dutch horde and the German Hürde, all carrying the sense of a light, movable screen. Because such frames were exactly the sort of low barrier a runner or horse might have to clear, the athletics sense of a fence to be jumped grew up around the 1800s, and from there came the familiar figurative meaning of any obstacle to be overcome. The verb sense, to leap over such a barrier, followed naturally. The spelling trap is the quiet d before the -le, and the temptation to confuse it with its lookalike hurtle, which means to rush violently and is an entirely separate word.

How the word is built

• hurd- (from Old English hyrdel: a frame of woven twigs)
• -le (noun-forming suffix)