Hairy or harry?
hairy is an adjective meaning “Having a lot of body hair”; harry is a verb meaning “To plunder, pillage, assault”. Use hairy as an adjective and harry as a verb. In written English (wordfreq, 2021 data) harry is about 8.3 times as common as hairy.
What is the difference between hairy and harry?
| hairy | harry | |
|---|---|---|
| Part of speech | adjective, noun | verb, noun |
| Meaning | Having a lot of body hair Having a lot of fur | To plunder, pillage, assault To make repeated attacks on an enemy |
| Example | a hairy man | none recorded |
| Forms | hairier, hairiest | harries, harrying, harried |
| Pronunciation | /ˈhɛə.ɹi/ /ˈhɛɹ.i/ /ˈheːɹi/ | /ˈhæɹi/ /ˈhaɹɪj/ |
| In writing | 6.3 times per million words | 52 times per million words |
Sources: hairy and harry in the English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0); written frequency: wordfreq 3.1 (a 2021 snapshot of Wikipedia, subtitles, news, books, web text and social media).
Every current meaning of hairy and harry
hairy
- 1
Having a lot of body hair
a hairy man
- 2
Having a lot of fur
Near-synonyms: long-haired, furry, fluffy
- 3
Having hair growing from it
hairy chest; hairy back
- 4
Long-haired
yelling about dirty, hairy hippies
- 5
Seeming as if hair-covered or as if consisting of hair
Near-synonym: hairlike
- 6
informalDifficult, complex, intricate, or intimidating
It’s a hairy problem, and will probably take several weeks to sort out
- 7
informalCausing anxiety or fright; terrifying, scary
harry
- 1
To plunder, pillage, assault
- 2
slangThe drug heroin
- 3
To make repeated attacks on an enemy
- 4
To strip, lay waste, ravage
- 5
To harass, bother or distress with demands, threats, or criticism
Source: the English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0); obsolete, archaic, dialect and rare senses left out.
Which is more common, hairy or harry?
hairy appears 6.3 times per million words; harry 52 times per million words.
hairy 6.3 times per million wordsharry 52 times per million words
Source: written frequency: wordfreq 3.1 (a 2021 snapshot of Wikipedia, subtitles, news, books, web text and social media).