Hire, let, lease, rent, charter are comparable when they mean to take or engage something or grant the use of something for a stipulated price or rate.
Because some of these words are referable only to the act of the owner and some only to the act of the one who engages, and because they vary in their applications, they are not always true synonyms. In their narrowest use hire and let are complementary terms, hire meaning to engage the use or occupancy of something at a price or rate, and let meaning to grant its use or occupancy for a stipulated return.
Nevertheless hire, especially when used of persons or, by implication, their services, may be employed in either sense.
In distinctive use lease means to let on a contract by which the owner conveys to another for a set term, and usually at a fixed rate, land, buildings, or similar property. But lease may also be employed in the sense of to hire on a lease.
Rent implies payment in money (or in kind) for the use of land and the buildings thereon. As long as this idea is stressed, the verb may denote either to hire or to let a property.
Rent (in the sense of either hire or let ) is also employed in reference to various commodities other than real property.
Charter means to hire by a contract (charter party ) similar to a lease whereby the use of a ship is given for a certain time and the safe delivery of its cargo is promised.
The word is often extended to other means of transportation (as buses or airplanes) and then usually implies to reserve by hiring or leasing the exclusive use of a vehicle that is normally available to the general public.