What does "hurt" mean?
An emotional or psychological humiliation or bad experience.
Hurt
/hɜːt/ adj, name, noun, verb
adj, name, noun, verb ·Very common ·Middle school level
Meaning at a glance
- Primary sense: An emotional or psychological humiliation or bad experience.
- Grammar: hurt is listed as adj, name, noun, verb.
- Nearest alternatives: ache, anguish, damage, distress.
- Useful contrasts: acceptance, console, enhance.
- Usage evidence: These shoes are too tight. They hurt.
How to use "hurt"
- Start with the primary definition, then check the part of speech before placing the word in a sentence.
- Compare nearby synonyms to make sure "hurt" carries the exact meaning, tone, and strength you need.
- Use the example sentence as a context check. If your sentence uses the word differently, confirm that the grammar still fits.
Meaning check
- Does the word fit the sentence's grammar?
- Does it match the intended tone rather than only the dictionary definition?
- Would a simpler synonym be clearer for the reader?
- Is there enough surrounding context to prevent ambiguity?
Source and review context
This entry combines structured lexical data with WordToolSet review checks. Definitions, examples, synonyms, and usage notes may come from different source tables, so the page is designed to show evidence from more than one angle before you rely on "hurt" in a final draft.
If a word has several senses, prefer the sense that matches your sentence's grammar and surrounding context. A correct definition can still be the wrong choice when the sentence needs a different register, emphasis, or level of specificity.
Before you rely on this definition
Read the first definition as a starting point, then check the example, synonyms, and part of speech before treating "hurt" as the right word for your sentence.
If your draft is formal, technical, persuasive, or sensitive, compare "hurt" with a nearby alternative so the final choice matches both meaning and reader expectation.
Compare nearby meanings
- Use synonyms when you need a softer, stronger, simpler, or more specific word.
- Use antonyms to check the boundary of the meaning and avoid accidental contrast.
- Use the example sentence to confirm the word behaves naturally in context.
- Keep the original wording when a replacement adds complexity without improving precision.
Definition decision workflow
1. Identify the role
Check whether "hurt" is acting as adj, name, noun, verb in your sentence. A definition is only useful when the grammar matches the way the word is being used.
2. Test the nearest option
Compare it with "ache" and other nearby choices to see whether the sentence needs a softer, stronger, or more familiar word.
3. Confirm with context
Use the example sentence below as an evidence check, then read your own sentence out loud to catch tone or rhythm problems.
Review note: Definition pages are checked for source coverage, sentence evidence, synonym support, and editorial insight before they are treated as approval-ready pages. If the evidence is too thin, the page remains available to users but is kept out of the approval-facing indexed inventory.
Final meaning check
Before publishing a sentence with "hurt", ask whether the word helps the reader understand the idea faster. A precise word should reduce confusion, not simply make the sentence look more polished.
When the definition, synonym evidence, and example context point in the same direction, the word is usually a safer choice. When they conflict, revise the sentence or choose a clearer alternative.
Definitions
Noun
- 1 An emotional or psychological humiliation or bad experience. countable, uncountable
"how to overcome old hurts of the past"
- 2 A roundel azure (blue circular spot).
- 3 the act of damaging something or someone wordnet
- 4 A bodily injury causing pain; a wound or bruise. archaic, countable, uncountable
"I have received a hurt."
- 5 a damage or loss wordnet
Show 6 more definitions
- 6 Injury; damage; detriment; harm archaic, countable, uncountable
"Thou dost me yet but little hurt."
- 7 feelings of mental or physical pain wordnet
- 8 A band on a trip hammer's helve, bearing the trunnions. countable, uncountable
- 9 psychological suffering wordnet
- 10 A husk. countable, uncountable
- 11 any physical damage to the body caused by violence or accident or fracture etc.; the condition of an injury wordnet
Verb
- 1 To cause (a person or animal) physical pain and/or injury. intransitive, transitive
"If anybody hurts my little brother, I will get upset."
- 2 give trouble or pain to wordnet
- 3 To cause (somebody) emotional pain. intransitive, transitive
"He was deeply hurt he hadn’t been invited."
- 4 be in pain wordnet
- 5 To be painful. intransitive, stative
"Does your leg still hurt? / It is starting to feel better."
Show 5 more definitions
- 6 cause damage or affect negatively wordnet
- 7 To damage, harm, impair, undermine, impede. intransitive, transitive
"This latest gaffe hurts the legislator’s reelection prospects still further."
- 8 cause emotional anguish or make miserable wordnet
- 9 hurt the feelings of wordnet
- 10 be the source of pain wordnet
Adjective
- 1 Wounded, physically injured.
- 2 Feeling physical or emotional pain.
Adjective
- 1 damaged; used of inanimate objects or their value wordnet
- 2 suffering from physical injury especially that suffered in battle wordnet
Proper Noun
- 1 A town in Virginia. uncountable
- 2 A surname. countable
Antonyms
Example
"These shoes are too tight. They hurt."
Common questions
What is a synonym for "hurt"?
Common synonyms include: ache, anguish, damage, distress, injury, abomination.
How do you use "hurt" in a sentence?
These shoes are too tight. They hurt.
How do you pronounce "hurt"?
Pronounced /hɜːt/.
Etymology
Etymology 1
From Middle English hurten, hirten, hertan (“to injure, scathe, knock together”), from Old Northern French hurter ("to ram into, strike, collide with"; > Modern French heurter), perhaps from Frankish *hūrt (“a battering ram”), cognate with Welsh hwrdd (“ram”) and Cornish hordh (“ram”). Compare Proto-Germanic *hrūtaną, *hreutaną (“to fall, beat”), from Proto-Indo-European *krew- (“to fall, beat, smash, strike, break”); however, the earliest instances of the verb in Middle English are as old as those found in Old French, which leads to the possibility that the Middle English word may instead be a reflex of an unrecorded Old English *hyrtan, which later merged with the Old French verb. Germanic cognates include Dutch horten (“to push against, strike”), Middle Low German hurten (“to run at, collide with”), Middle High German hurten (“to push, bump, attack, storm, invade”), Old Norse hrútr (“battering ram”). Alternate etymology traces Old Northern French hurter rather to Old Norse hrútr (“ram (male sheep)”), lengthened-grade variant of hjǫrtr (“stag”), from Proto-Germanic *herutuz, *herutaz (“hart, male deer”), which would relate it to English hart (“male deer”). See hart.
Etymology 2
Unclear. Suggestions include: from its resemblance to a blue hurtleberry, or from French heurt (a blow, leaving a blue bruise), the latter of which would make it a doublet of hurt Etymology 1; compare the theories about golpe (“purple roundel”)).