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Added 2 October 2026

hell

/hɛl/ proper noun

Categories: PlacesActionsEveryday Words

In Latin: infernum, Tartarus, gehenna Wiktionary

proper noun Definition from Wiktionary (CC BY-SA). Pronunciation from Wiktionary, via Kaikki.org. More about hell at Wordnik → Where our words come from →

  1. A place of torment where some or all sinners are believed to go after death and evil spirits are believed to be.
    May you rot in hell!

noun

  1. A place or situation of great suffering in life.
    My new boss is making my job a hell.
  2. A place for gambling.
  3. An extremely hot place.
    You don’t have a snowball's chance in hell.

interjection

  1. Used to express discontent, unhappiness, or anger.
    Oh, hell! I got another parking ticket.
  2. Used to emphasize.
    Hell yeah!
  3. Used to introduce an intensified statement following an understated one; nay; not only that, but.
    Do it, or, rest assured, there will be no more Middle Eastern crisis – hell, there will be no more Middle East!

adverb

  1. Alternative form of the hell or like hell.
  2. Very; used to emphasize strongly.
    That was hell good!

Origin

From Middle English hel, hell, helle, hælle, from Old English hel, hell, from Proto-West Germanic *hallju, from Proto-Germanic *haljō (“hell, netherworld”), from Proto-Indo-European *ḱel- (“to cover”). First attested in c. 725.

From Wiktionary, via Kaikki.org (CC BY-SA)

Related Words: netherworldunderworldinfernoperditionhadeshelsinblaze

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