hinge
Definition, pronunciation, etymology, and usage for the English word. Free spelling reference powered by Wiktionary.
Letters
5 characters
Language
English
word origin
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Detailed reference entry for the English word "hinge", 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 "hinge" 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 "hinge" for academic writing, checking homophone confusion, or exploring etymological origins, this page provides a citation-backed, free reference that requires no sign-up.
hinge is aEnglishnoun. It means: A jointed or flexible device that allows the pivoting of a door etc. Pronounced /ˈhɪnd͡ʒ/. Often confused with huge and hong.
| Property | Value |
|---|---|
| Headword | hinge |
| Language | English |
| Part of speech | Noun |
| IPA | /ˈhɪnd͡ʒ/ |
| Letters | 5 |
| Frequency rank | #19,106 |
| Misspellings tracked | 7 |
| Confusable pairs | 20 |
| Source | Wiktionary (kaikki.org) |
Frequency rank visualization
Spelling & Dictionary Insight
The English entry for hinge is 5 letters long, classified as anoun, and transcribed in the International Phonetic Alphabet as /ˈhɪnd͡ʒ/. Corpus data places it at rank #19,106 in overall English word frequency, marking it as uncommon enough that many writers pause before typing it.Wiktionary records 9 distinct senses for this headword, so context determines which meaning a reader should apply.
Our Hunspell-derived misspelling index lists 7 documented wrong-spelling variants for hinge, with forms such as "hhinge", "higne", and "hineg". 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, "huge", "hong", "hire", and more, where similar look or sound leads writers to substitute one word for another in context.
Etymologically, the entry records: From Middle English henge (“hinge”), from Old English *henġ or *henġe (“hinge”), from Proto-West Germanic *hangiju or *hangī; compare Old English *henġe- in henġeclif (“overhanging cliff”), Old English henġen (“hanging; that upon which a thing is hung”). Ak… 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 hinge, spelled H-I-N-G-E, and any other sequence of those letters, regardless of how natural it feels, is a misspelling in standard orthography.
Definition
- 1A jointed or flexible device that allows the pivoting of a door etc.
- 2A naturally occurring joint resembling such hardware in form or action, as in the shell of a bivalve.
- 3A stamp hinge, a folded and gummed paper rectangle for affixing postage stamps in an album.
- 4A principle, or a point in time, on which subsequent reasonings or events depend.
- 5The median of the upper or lower half of a batch, sample, or probability distribution.
- 6One of the four cardinal points, east, west, north, or south.
- 7A movement that presents itself as rotation when an off-centre fixed point is taken into account.
- 8In polyamory, a person connected emotionally or sexually to two others who are not connected to each other.
- 9To be in poor health; to be out of sorts.
Etymology
From Middle English henge (“hinge”), from Old English *henġ or *henġe (“hinge”), from Proto-West Germanic *hangiju or *hangī; compare Old English *henġe- in henġeclif (“overhanging cliff”), Old English henġen (“hanging; that upon which a thing is hung”). Akin to Scots heenge (“hinge”), Saterland Frisian Hänge (“hinge”), Low German henge (“hook, hinge, handle”), Dutch heng (“moving leaf of a hinge”), geheng (“hinge”), Middle Dutch henghe, hanghe (“hook, hinge, handle”), Scots hingel (“any attachment by which something is hung or fastened”), Dutch hengel (“hook”), hengsel (“handle”), dialectal German Hängel (“hook, joint”), German Henkel (“handle, hook”), Danish hængsel (“hinge”), Faroese hongsl (“hinge”), Icelandic hengsli (“hinge”), Norwegian hengsel (“hinge”), Swedish hängsle (“suspender”), Old English hōn (“to hang”), hangian (“to cause to hang, hang up”). More at hang.
This word in other languages
Common misspellings
Also misspelled as: hhinge,higne,hineg,hingge,hinnge,hnige,ihnge
Misspelling Pattern Breakdown
Relative frequency of common misspelling types for hinge
Misspelling Variants of "hinge"
Frequency rank: #19,106 in English
Frequently Asked Questions
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Nearby English words
Other entries that begin with the letter H in our English index: