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PlainSpell

hide

/haɪd/verb, noun

hide is spelled H-I-D-E: 4 letters and one syllable. It appears 35 times per million words in written English, the 2,785th most frequent word form (wordfreq, 2021 data). People search “hide vs hyde” about 70 times a month (Google, United States). As a verb, hide means “To put (something) in a place where it will be out of sight or harder to discover” (English Wiktionary, September 2026).

How many letters and syllables are in hide?

Letters4: H-I-D-E
Syllables1 (from its American pronunciation)
In writing35 times per million words; the 2,785th most frequent word form
Wrong spellings searchednone measured in search
Pairs people search

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).

How common is hide?

Hide appears 35 times per million words in written English, the 2,785th 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 hide?

  • /haɪd/
  • /hɛɪd/

Hide has one syllable (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-us-hide.ogg, Wikimedia Commons (author and licence on each file's page).

Words people confuse with hide

Word pairs people search, with the monthly searches for “a vs b” (G: Google, B: Bing, United States).

hide vs hyde70 G

Also written: hyde.

Sources: Google and Bing searches (September 2025 to August 2026, through DataForSEO); English Wiktionary (homophones, alternative spellings).

Forms of hide

  • hides present, singular, he/she/it, plural
  • hiding participle, present
  • hid past
  • hidden participle, past
  • hided participle, past

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

What does hide mean?

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

verb

  1. 1

    To put (something) in a place where it will be out of sight or harder to discover.

    He hides his magazines under the bed.

  2. 2

    To put oneself in a place where one will be out of sight or harder to find.

    You can run, but you can't hide!

  3. 3

    To beat with a whip made from hide.

noun

  1. 1

    The skin of an animal.

  2. 2

    derogatoryobsoleteThe human skin.

  3. 3

    USinformalOne's own life or personal safety, especially when in peril.

    to save his own hide

  4. 4

    (mainly British) A covered structure from which hunters, birdwatchers, etc can observe animals without scaring them.

  5. 5

    A secret room for hiding oneself or valuables; a hideaway.

  6. 6

    A covered structure to which a pet animal can retreat, as is recommended for snakes.

  7. 7

    A unit of land and tax assessment of varying size, originally as intended to support one household with dependents.

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

Hide in Spanish, French, German and Portuguese

LanguageWords
Frenchcacher, dissimuler, masquer ((transitive) put in a place where it will be…), se cacher ((intransitive) put oneself in a place where one…), cuir, peau (skin of an animal)
Germanverbergen, verdecken, verheimlichen, verstecken, unsichtbar machen ((transitive) put in a place where it will be…), sich verbergen ((intransitive) put oneself in a place where one…)
Portugueseesconder ((transitive) put in a place where it will be…), esconder-se ((intransitive) put oneself in a place where one…), pele, couro (skin of an animal)
Spanishesconder, ocultar, disimular, soterrar, submarinear, escusar ((transitive) put in a place where it will be…)

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 hide come from?

From Middle English hiden, huden, from Old English hȳdan (“to hide, conceal, preserve”), from Proto-West Germanic *huʀdijan (“to conceal”), from Proto-Germanic *huzdijaną (“to hoard”), from Proto-Indo-European *(s)kewdʰ- (“to cover, wrap, encase”), from Proto-Indo-European *(s)kewH- (“to cover”). The verb was originally weak. In the King James Version of the Bible (1611), both hid and hidden are used for the past participle.

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

What to look up after hide