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PlainSpell

hip

/hɪp/noun, verb, adjective, interjection

hip is spelled H-I-P: 3 letters and one syllable. It appears 29 times per million words in written English, the 3,218th most frequent word form (wordfreq, 2021 data, counting Hip, the name). As a noun, hip means “The outward-projecting parts of the pelvis and top of the femur and the overlying tissue” (English Wiktionary, September 2026). The plural of hip is hips.

How many letters and syllables are in hip?

Letters3: H-I-P
Syllables1 (from its American pronunciation)
In writing29 times per million words; the 3,218th most frequent word form
Wrong spellings searchednone measured in search
Same letters

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); rhymes and same-letter words are computed by PlainSpell from its own word list.

How common is hip?

Hip appears 29 times per million words in written English, the 3,218th most frequent word form in the list. The list counts every capitalisation together, so this includes Hip, the name.

Source: written frequency: wordfreq 3.1 (a 2021 snapshot of Wikipedia, subtitles, news, books, web text and social media).

How do you pronounce hip?

  • /hɪp/

Hip 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-hip.ogg, Wikimedia Commons (author and licence on each file's page).

What rhymes with hip?

No other word on PlainSpell ends in the same sounds as hip.

Spelled with the same letters in another order: phi.

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 hip

  • hips plural, present, singular, he/she/it
  • hipping participle, present
  • hipped participle, past
  • hipper comparative
  • hippest superlative

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

What does hip mean?

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

noun

  1. 1

    The outward-projecting parts of the pelvis and top of the femur and the overlying tissue.

  2. 2

    The inclined external angle formed by the intersection of two sloping roof planes.

  3. 3

    In a bridge truss, the place where an inclined end post meets the top chord.

  4. 4

    datedslangA drug addict, especially someone addicted to a narcotic like heroin.

  5. 5

    The fruit of a rose.

verb

  1. 1

    To use one's hips to bump into someone.

  2. 2

    To throw (one's adversary) over one's hip ("cross-buttock").

  3. 3

    To dislocate or sprain the hip of, to fracture or injure the hip bone of (a quadruped) in such a manner as to produce a permanent depression of that side.

  4. 4

    To make with a hip or hips, as a roof.

  5. 5

    slangTo inform, to make knowledgeable.

interjection

  1. 1

    An exclamation to invoke a united cheer: hip hip hooray.

noun

as HIP
  1. 1

    UKAcronym of Home Information Pack.

  2. 2

    Acronym of Higher Intermediate Point.

  3. 3

    Acronym of historically informed performance.

  4. 4

    Initialism of hot isostatic pressing

adjective

  1. 1

    datedslangAware, informed, up-to-date, trendy.

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

Hip in Spanish, French, German and Portuguese

LanguageWords
Frenchhanche (joint), cynorrhodon (the fruit of a rose), branché (aware, informed, up-to-date, trendy)
GermanHüfte (joint), Hagebutte (the fruit of a rose), hip (aware, informed, up-to-date, trendy)
Portuguesequadril, anca (joint), cinórrodo (the fruit of a rose)
Spanishcadera, anca, cuadril, rengadero (joint), escaramujo (the fruit of a rose)

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 hip come from?

From Middle English hipe, hupe, from Old English hype, from Proto-Germanic *hupiz (compare Dutch heup, Low German Huop, German Hüfte), from Proto-Indo-European *ḱewb- (compare Welsh cysgu (“to sleep”), Latin cubāre (“to lie”), Ancient Greek κύβος (kúbos, “hollow in the hips”), Albanian sup (“shoulder”), Sanskrit शुप्ति (śúpti, “shoulder”)), from *ḱew- (“to bend”). More at high. The sense "drug addict" derives from addicts lying on their hips while using certain drugs such as opium.

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

What to look up after hip