harelip
noun, verb
harelip is a noun meaning “A congenital malformation of the upper lip, reminiscent of the mouth of a hare” (English Wiktionary, September 2026). It is spelled H-A-R-E-L-I-P, and it appears about once in every 32 million words in written English (wordfreq, 2021 data). The plural of harelip is harelips.
What does harelip mean?
noun
- 1
A congenital malformation of the upper lip, reminiscent of the mouth of a hare.
verb
- 1
To curse (as if by causing a harelip),
I don't care if it harelips the governor.
Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract).
How do you pronounce harelip?
- US
Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract). Recordings: En-us-harelip.ogg, Wikimedia Commons (author and licence on each file's page).
Forms of harelip
- harelips plural, present, singular, he/she/it
- harelipping participle, present
- harelipped participle, past
Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract).
How common is harelip?
Harelip appears about once in every 32 million words in written English, the 171,907th 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).
Harelip in Spanish, French, German and Portuguese
In the sense congenital malformation of the upper lip:
| Language | Words |
|---|---|
| French | bec de lièvre, bec-de-lièvre |
| German | Hasenscharte |
| Portuguese | lábio leporino |
| Spanish | labio leporino, cheuto |
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 harelip come from?
From hare + lip.
Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract).