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PlainSpell

hail

/heɪl/noun, verb

hail is spelled H-A-I-L: 4 letters and one syllable. It appears 8.3 times per million words in written English, the 8,036th most frequent word form (wordfreq, 2021 data, counting Hail, the name). People search “hail vs hale” about 720 times a month (Google, United States). As a noun, hail means “Balls or pieces of ice falling as precipitation, often in connection with a thunderstorm” (English Wiktionary, September 2026). The plural of hail is hails.

How many letters and syllables are in hail?

Letters4: H-A-I-L
Syllables1 (from its American pronunciation)
In writing8.3 times per million words; the 8,036th most frequent word form
Wrong spellings searchednone measured in search
Pairs people search
Sounds like

Sources: letters and syllables from the English Wiktionary's hyphenation or pronunciation and the CMU Pronouncing Dictionary; written frequency: wordfreq 3.1 (a 2021 snapshot of Wikipedia, subtitles, news, books, web text and social media); Bing searches in the United States: the average month from September 2025 to August 2026 (Microsoft Advertising keyword data through DataForSEO, read September 30, 2026).

How common is hail?

Hail appears 8.3 times per million words in written English, the 8,036th most frequent word form in the list. The list counts every capitalisation together, so this includes Hail, the name.

Source: written frequency: wordfreq 3.1 (a 2021 snapshot of Wikipedia, subtitles, news, books, web text and social media).

How do you pronounce hail?

  • /heɪl/
  • [heɪ̯ɫ]
  • [heːɫ]

Hail has one syllable (counted from its American pronunciation in the CMU Pronouncing Dictionary).

Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract). Recordings: En-us-hail.ogg, Wikimedia Commons (author and licence on each file's page).

Words people confuse with hail

Word pairs people search, with the monthly searches for “a vs b” (G: Google, B: Bing, United States).

hail vs hale720 G

Sounds like: hale (Wiktionary's homophone list; some hold only in some accents).

Sources: Google and Bing searches (September 2025 to August 2026, through DataForSEO); English Wiktionary (homophones, alternative spellings).

Forms of hail

  • hails plural, present, singular, he/she/it
  • hailing participle, present
  • hailed participle, past
  • hailer comparative
  • hailest superlative

Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract).

What does hail mean?

The meanings the English Wiktionary records, quoted as written there (source below).

noun

  1. 1

    Balls or pieces of ice falling as precipitation, often in connection with a thunderstorm.

  2. 2

    An occurrence of this type of precipitation; a hailstorm.

  3. 3

    A rapid, intense barrage by a large number of projectiles or other objects.

verb

  1. 1

    To have hailstones fall from the sky.

    They say it's going to hail tomorrow.

  2. 2

    To send or release hail.

    The cloud would hail down furiously within a few minutes.

  3. 3

    To pour down in rapid succession.

  4. 4

    To greet; give salutation to; salute.

  5. 5

    To name; to designate; to call.

    He was hailed as a hero.

  6. 6

    To call out loudly in order to gain the attention of.

    Hail a taxi.

  7. 7

    AustraliaUKTo indicate, from a designated stop or otherwise, to the driver of a public transport vehicle that one wishes to board and travel on the vehicle, usually using hand signals such as waving.

    In Melbourne, you would usually have to hail a tram when you are travelling late at night and there are no other passengers waiting at your stop.

  8. 8

    To signal in order to initiate communication with.

  9. 9

    In the game of uppies and downies, to throw (the ball) repeatedly up and down at the goal location, in order to score a point.

  10. 10

    to originate (from), be native (to) or be based (in)

adjective

  1. 1

    obsoleteHealthy, whole, safe.

interjection

  1. 1

    archaicAn exclamation of respectful or reverent salutation, or, occasionally, of familiar greeting.

Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract).

Hail in Spanish, French, German and Portuguese

LanguageWords
Frenchgrêle, grêlons (balls of ice), grêler (to fall from the sky, of hail), saluer (to greet), héler (to call out loudly in order to gain the…)
GermanHagel, Graupel (balls of ice), hageln, graupeln (to fall from the sky, of hail), grüßen (to greet), feiern als (to name, to designate (as someone/something))
Portuguesegranizo, saraiva (balls of ice), granizar (to fall from the sky, of hail), saudar (to greet), designar (to name, to designate (as someone/something)), ave (greeting!)
Spanishgranizo, pedrisco, cascarrina, pedrisquero (balls of ice), granizar, cascarrinar (to fall from the sky, of hail)

Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract). Translations are Wiktionary's, by sense; a linked word has its own PlainSpell page.

Where does hail come from?

From Middle English hayl, haul, from Old English hæġl, hæġel, hagol (“hail”), from Proto-West Germanic *hagl, from Proto-Germanic *haglaz, of uncertain origin. Either from Proto-Indo-European *kagʰlos (“pebble”); or alternatively from *ḱoḱló-, a reduplication of *ḱel- (“cold”). Cognate with Saterland Frisian Hail (“hail”), West Frisian heil (“hail”), Low German Hagel (“hail”), German Hagel (“hail”), Dutch and Swedish hagel (“hail”), Danish, Norwegian Bokmål, Norwegian Nynorsk, and Icelandic hagl (“hail”). Compare also Old Norse héla (“frost”). Doublet of haglaz, if the second etymology (“cold”

Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract).

What to look up after hail