hello
Definition, pronunciation, etymology, and usage for the English word. Free spelling reference powered by Wiktionary.
Letters
5 characters
Language
English
word origin
Source
Wiktionary
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Detailed reference entry for the English word "hello", 5-letters, with pronunciation in International Phonetic Alphabet notation, etymology traced through Germanic and Romance roots where applicable, common misspelling variants catalogued from Hunspell error dictionaries, and usage frequency ranked against the top 100,000 English words in the Wordfreq corpus. PlainSpell covers English, Spanish, Portuguese, French, and German spelling with confusable-pair detection that highlights visually and phonetically similar words. This entry for "hello" includes synonyms, antonyms, homophones, and cross-language translation pointers sourced from Wiktionary via the kaikki.org extract. Whether you are verifying the correct spelling of "hello" for academic writing, checking homophone confusion, or exploring etymological origins, this page provides a citation-backed, free reference that requires no sign-up.
hello is anEnglishintj. It means: A greeting (salutation) said when meeting someone or acknowledging someone’s arrival or presence. Pronounced /hɛˈloʊ/. It ranks #1,944 in English word frequency. Often confused with help and hill.
| Property | Value |
|---|---|
| Headword | hello |
| Language | English |
| Part of speech | Intj |
| IPA | /hɛˈloʊ/ |
| Letters | 5 |
| Frequency rank | #1,944 |
| Misspellings tracked | 5 |
| Confusable pairs | 20 |
| Source | Wiktionary (kaikki.org) |
Frequency rank visualization
Spelling & Dictionary Insight
The English entry for hello is 5 letters long, classified as anintj, and transcribed in the International Phonetic Alphabet as /hɛˈloʊ/. Corpus data places it at rank #1,944 in overall English word frequency, indicating it appears regularly in written and spoken text.Wiktionary records 5 distinct senses for this headword, so context determines which meaning a reader should apply.
Our Hunspell-derived misspelling index lists 5 documented wrong-spelling variants for hello, with forms such as "ehllo", "helo", and "helol". Each variant represents a distinct typo pattern that appears often enough in corpora to be worth flagging, typically a doubled-consonant error, a silent-letter drop, or a vowel substitution.It also participates in 20 confusable-pair relationships, "help", "hill", "hero", and more, where similar look or sound leads writers to substitute one word for another in context.
Etymologically, the entry records: Hello (first attested in 1826), from holla, hollo (attested 1588). This variant of hallo is often credited to Thomas Edison as a coinage for telephone use, but its appearance in print predates the invention of the telephone by several decades. Ultimately fr… Root origin matters for spelling because borrowed morphemes (Greek, Latin, Old French, Old English) carry their source-language orthographic conventions into modern English, which is why historical etymology is often the cleanest predictor of whether a cluster like "-ough", "-eau", or "-tion" will appear. For readers arriving here from a spelling check, the authoritative guidance is: the correct English form is hello, spelled H-E-L-L-O, and any other sequence of those letters, regardless of how natural it feels, is a misspelling in standard orthography.
Definition
- 1A greeting (salutation) said when meeting someone or acknowledging someone’s arrival or presence.
- 2A greeting used when answering the telephone.
- 3A call for response if it is not clear if anyone is present or listening, or if a telephone conversation may have been disconnected.
- 4Used sarcastically to imply that the person addressed has done something the speaker considers to be foolish, or missed something that should have been obvious.
- 5An expression of puzzlement or discovery.
Etymology
Hello (first attested in 1826), from holla, hollo (attested 1588). This variant of hallo is often credited to Thomas Edison as a coinage for telephone use, but its appearance in print predates the invention of the telephone by several decades. Ultimately from a variant of Old English ēalā, such as hēlā, which was used colloquially at the time similarly to how hey and (in some dialects) hi are used nowadays. Thus, equivalent to a compound of hey and lo. Used when drawing attention to yourself. Possibly influenced by Old Saxon halo!, imperative of halōn (“to call, fetch”), used in hailing a ferryman, akin to Old High German hala, hola!, imperative forms of halōn, holōn (“to fetch”). More at hallo. OED and Merriam-Webster also suggested that it is a variant of holla, a variant of holloo. Further beyond, the origin remains uncertain. OED and Merriam-Webster suggested that it has a connection between hallow (“to shout, to cry out loud”), which came from Old French holloer, which, according to Altfranzösisches Wörterbuch, is from Old Saxon halōn.
Synonyms
This word in other languages
Common misspellings
Also misspelled as: ehllo,helo,helol,hhello,hlelo
Misspelling Pattern Breakdown
Relative frequency of common misspelling types for hello
Misspelling Variants of "hello"
Frequency rank: #1,944 in English
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Nearby English words
Other entries that begin with the letter H in our English index: