hare
/hɛə/noun, verb, adjective
hare is spelled H-A-R-E: 4 letters and one syllable. It appears 4.6 times per million words in written English, the 11,870th most frequent word form (wordfreq, 2021 data). As a noun, hare means “Any of several plant-eating mammals of the genus Lepus, similar to a rabbit, but larger and with longer ears” (English Wiktionary, September 2026). The plural of hare is hares.
How many letters and syllables are in hare?
| Letters | 4: H-A-R-E |
|---|---|
| Syllables | 1 (from its American pronunciation) |
| In writing | 4.6 times per million words; the 11,870th most frequent word form |
| Wrong spellings searched | none measured in search |
| Pairs people search | |
| Sounds like | |
| Rhymes with | |
| Same letters |
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); rhymes and same-letter words are computed by PlainSpell from its own word list.
How common is hare?
Hare appears 4.6 times per million words in written English, the 11,870th most frequent word form in the list.
Source: written frequency: wordfreq 3.1 (a 2021 snapshot of Wikipedia, subtitles, news, books, web text and social media).
How do you pronounce hare?
- UK /hɛə/
- UK /hɛː/
- British /hɛː/
Hare 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-hare.ogg, Wikimedia Commons (author and licence on each file's page).
Words people confuse with hare
Word pairs people search, with the monthly searches for “a vs b” (G: Google, B: Bing, United States).
Sounds like: hair (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).
What rhymes with hare?
The 12 most written words on PlainSpell end in the same sounds as hare from its last stressed vowel (/ɛə/, British pronunciation):
Spelled with the same letters in another order: hear, rhea, hera.
Computed by PlainSpell from the pronunciations in the English Wiktionary (dump of September 2, 2026): a rhyme shares every sound from the last stressed vowel to the end; ordered by written frequency (wordfreq 3.1).
Forms of hare
- hares plural, present, singular, he/she/it
- haring participle, present
- hared participle, past
- harr
- hoar
Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract).
What does hare mean?
The meanings the English Wiktionary records, quoted as written there (source below).
noun
- 1
Any of several plant-eating mammals of the genus Lepus, similar to a rabbit, but larger and with longer ears.
- 2
The meat from this animal.
- 3
The player in a paperchase, or hare and hounds game, who leaves a trail of paper to be followed.
verb
- 1
To move swiftly.
- 2
obsoleteTo excite; to tease, or worry; to harry.
adjective
- 1
Grey, hoary; grey-haired, venerable (of people).
a hare old man
- 2
Cold, frosty (of weather).
a hare day
Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract).
Hare in Spanish, French, German and Portuguese
In the sense animal:
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 hare come from?
From Middle English hare, from Old English hara (“hare”), from Proto-West Germanic *hasō ~ *haʀ-, from Proto-Germanic *hesô, from Proto-Indo-European *ḱh₂s-én-; possibly related to or influenced by Proto-Germanic *haswaz (“grey”).
Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract).