hemi
noun
hemi is a noun meaning “A motor with hemispherical combustion chambers. A piston engine internal combustion engine with hemispherical piston cylinder heads” (English Wiktionary, September 2026). It is spelled H-E-M-I, and it appears about once in every 3 million words in written English (wordfreq, 2021 data). The plural of hemi is hemis.
What does hemi mean?
noun
- 1
A motor with hemispherical combustion chambers. A piston engine internal combustion engine with hemispherical piston cylinder heads.
- 2
A combustion chamber with the hemispherical cylinder head from such an engine.
- 3
A hemispherical cylinder head from such a motor.
- 4
A vehicle equipped with such a motor engine.
- 5
Domed versions of the above that have cylinder heads that are not exactly hemispherical
Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract).
Forms of hemi
- hemis plural
Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract).
How common is hemi?
Hemi appears about once in every 3 million words in written English, the 49,368th 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).
Hemi in Spanish, French, German and Portuguese
In the sense half – see also half-, semi-, demi-:
| Language | Words |
|---|---|
| French | hémi- |
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 hemi come from?
Clipping of hemisphere.
Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract).