hello
/hɛˈloʊ/interjection, noun, verb
hello is spelled H-E-L-L-O. The wrong spelling people search most is hellow: about 570 Bing searches a month in the United States (September 2025 to August 2026), about 1 in 233 of all searches for the word. Hello is an interjection meaning “A greeting (salutation) said when meeting someone or acknowledging someone’s arrival or presence”.
How many letters and syllables are in hello?
| Letters | 5: H-E-L-L-O |
|---|---|
| Syllables | 2 (from its American pronunciation) |
| In writing | 52 times per million words; the 1,941st most frequent word form |
| Wrong spellings searched | 1; the most searched, hellow, about 570 Bing searches a month (all of them) |
| Pairs people search | |
| Rhymes with |
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 do you spell hello?
Hello is spelled H-E-L-L-O. One wrong spelling is searched or written often enough to measure; together they are about 1 in 234 of the searches for hello in either form.
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). Wrong spellings are taken from Wiktionary entries tagged "misspelling" and its obsolete or nonstandard forms, Wikipedia's Lists of common misspellings and the codespell dictionary, then measured. The proofreader's marks show the change that corrects each one.
How common is hello?
Hello appears 52 times per million words in written English, the 1,941st 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 hello?
- US /hɛˈloʊ/
- US /həˈloʊ/
- US /ˈhɛloʊ/
Hello has 2 syllables (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-uk-hello.ogg, En-au-hello.ogg, Wikimedia Commons (author and licence on each file's page).
Words people confuse with hello
Word pairs people search, with the monthly searches for “a vs b” (G: Google, B: Bing, United States).
Sources: Google and Bing searches (September 2025 to August 2026, through DataForSEO); English Wiktionary (homophones, alternative spellings).
What rhymes with hello?
The 12 most written words on PlainSpell end in the same sounds as hello from its last stressed vowel (/oʊ/):
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 hello
- hullo UK
- hellos plural, present, singular, he/she/it
- helloes plural, present, singular, he/she/it
- helloing participle, present
- helloed participle, past
Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract).
What does hello mean?
The meanings the English Wiktionary records, quoted as written there (source below).
interjection
- 1
A greeting (salutation) said when meeting someone or acknowledging someone’s arrival or presence.
Hello, everyone.
- 2
A greeting used when answering the telephone.
Hello? How may I help you?
- 3
A call for response if it is not clear if anyone is present or listening, or if a telephone conversation may have been disconnected.
Hello? Is anyone there?
- 4
colloquialUsed sarcastically to imply that the person addressed has done something the speaker considers to be foolish, or missed something that should have been obvious.
You just tried to start your car with your cell phone. Hello?
- 5
UKAn expression of puzzlement or discovery.
Hello! What’s going on here?
noun
- 1
"Hello!" or an equivalent greeting.
They gave each other a quick hello when they met, and went back on their merry ways.
verb
- 1
To greet (someone) with "hello".
Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract).
How do you abbreviate hello?
Wiktionary records 2 abbreviations of hello: h'lo, lo.
Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract).
Hello in Spanish, French, German and Portuguese
| Language | Words |
|---|---|
| French | bonjour, salut, coucou , allô , eh oh, oh eh |
| German | hallo, guten Tag, servus, moin, grüß Gott, Tag |
| Portuguese | oi, olá, e aí? , alô, estou , olá? |
| Spanish | hola, holi, holis , aló, bueno, diga |
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 hello come from?
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.
Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract).