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hatch

/hæt͡ʃ/noun, verb

hatch is spelled H-A-T-C-H: 5 letters and one syllable. It appears 6.6 times per million words in written English, the 9,313th most frequent word form (wordfreq, 2021 data). As a noun, hatch means “A horizontal door in a floor or ceiling” (English Wiktionary, September 2026). The plural of hatch is hatches.

How many letters and syllables are in hatch?

Letters5: H-A-T-C-H
Syllables1
In writing6.6 times per million words; the 9,313th most frequent word form
Wrong spellings searchednone measured in search

Sources: letters and syllables from the English Wiktionary's hyphenation or pronunciation; written frequency: wordfreq 3.1 (a 2021 snapshot of Wikipedia, subtitles, news, books, web text and social media).

How common is hatch?

Hatch appears 6.6 times per million words in written English, the 9,313th 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 hatch?

  • /hæt͡ʃ/

Hatch has one syllable.

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

Words people confuse with hatch

Also written: hatch, match and despatch.

Sources: English Wiktionary (homophones, alternative spellings).

Forms of hatch

  • hatches plural, present, singular, he/she/it
  • hatching participle, present
  • hatched participle, past

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

What does hatch mean?

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

noun

  1. 1

    A horizontal door in a floor or ceiling.

    Moving the wardrobe revealed a previously hidden hatch in the ground.

  2. 2

    A trapdoor.

  3. 3

    An opening in a wall at window height for the purpose of serving food or other items. A pass through.

    The cook passed the dishes through the serving hatch.

  4. 4

    A small door in large mechanical structures and vehicles such as aircraft and spacecraft often provided for access for maintenance.

  5. 5

    An opening through the deck of a ship or submarine

  6. 6

    slangA gullet.

  7. 7

    A frame or weir in a river, for catching fish.

  8. 8

    A floodgate; a sluice gate.

  9. 9

    The act of hatching.

  10. 10

    Development; disclosure; discovery.

  11. 11

    A group of birds that emerged from eggs at a specified time.

    These pullets are from an April hatch.

  12. 12

    The phenomenon, lasting 1–2 days, of large clouds of mayflies appearing in one location to mate, having reached maturity.

    a. 1947, Edward R. Hewitt, quoted in 1947, Charles K. Fox, Redistribution of the Green Drake, 1997, Norm Shires, Jim Gilford (editors), Limestone Legends, page 104, The Willowemoc above Livington Manor had the largest mayfly hatch I ever kn

  13. 13

    informalA birth, the birth records (in the newspaper).

    hatch, match, and dispatch

verb

  1. 1

    To close with a hatch or hatches.

  2. 2

    To emerge from an egg.

    These three chicks hatched yesterday morning.

  3. 3

    To break open when a young animal emerges from it.

    She was delighted when she heard the crackling sound of the eggs hatching.

  4. 4

    To incubate eggs; to cause to hatch.

    I'm hatching this mysterious egg I found in the forest.

  5. 5

    To devise (a plot or scheme).

    World domination was only one of the evil schemes he had hatched over the years.

  6. 6

    To shade an area of (a drawing, diagram, etc.) with fine parallel lines, or with lines which cross each other (crosshatch).

  7. 7

    obsoleteTo cross; to spot; to stain; to steep.

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

Hatch in Spanish, French, German and Portuguese

LanguageWords
Frenchtrappe (1. horizontal door), passe-plat (3. opening for serving food), écoutille (5. an opening through the deck of a ship or…), éclore, naître, sortir de l'œuf (1. to emerge from an egg)
GermanLuke (1. horizontal door), Durchreiche (3. opening for serving food), schlüpfen (1. to emerge from an egg), ausschlüpfen (2. of an egg, to break open), brüten, ausbrüten (3. to incubate eggs)
Portugueseescotilha (1. horizontal door), eclodir (1. to emerge from an egg), chocar (3. to incubate eggs), tramar (4. to devise)
Spanishescotilla, escotillón (1. horizontal door), eclosionar (1. to emerge from an egg), compuerta, portillo, aguatocho (4. small door provided for access for…)

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 hatch come from?

From Middle English hacche, hache, from Old English hæċ, from Proto-West Germanic *hakkju (compare Dutch hek ‘gate, railing’, Low German Heck ‘pasture gate, farmyard gate’), variant of *haggju ‘hedge’. More at hedge.

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

What to look up after hatch