his
/hɪz/determiner, pronoun, noun
his is spelled H-I-S: 3 letters and one syllable. It appears 3,236 times per million words in written English, the 36th most frequent word form (wordfreq, 2021 data). As a determiner, his means “Belonging to him” (English Wiktionary, September 2026).
How many letters and syllables are in his?
| Letters | 3: H-I-S |
|---|---|
| Syllables | 1 (from its American pronunciation) |
| In writing | 3,236 times per million words; the 36th most frequent word form |
| Wrong spellings searched | none measured in search |
| Rhymes with | |
| 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 his?
His appears 3,236 times per million words in written English, the 36th 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 his?
- /ɪz/ [ɪ̈z]
- /əz/
- US /hɪz/
His 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-his.ogg, Wikimedia Commons (author and licence on each file's page).
What rhymes with his?
2 words on PlainSpell end in the same sounds as his from its last stressed vowel (/ɪz/):
Spelled with the same letters in another order: ish, shi.
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).
What does his mean?
The meanings the English Wiktionary records, quoted as written there (source below).
determiner
- 1
Belonging to him.
- 2
datedBelonging to a person of unspecified gender.
- 3
obsoleteIts; belonging to it. (Now only when implying personification.)
- 4
archaicUsed as a genitive marker in place of ’s after a noun, especially a masculine noun ending in -s, to express the possessive case.
Ahab his mark
pronoun
- 1
That or those belonging to him; the possessive case of he, used without a following noun.
This pen is his. These books are also his.
- 2
informalHis house or home.
After our night out, I went back to his.
- 3
Alternative spelling of His.
noun
- 1
plural of hi
pronoun
- 1
Honorific alternative letter-case form of his, sometimes used when referring to God or another important figure who is understood from context.
We pray that He grant us His blessings and that His will be done.
noun
- 1
Initialism of health information system or hospital information system.
Meronyms: HL7, PACS, DICOM, EHR, EMR
Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract).
His in Spanish, French, German and Portuguese
| Language | Words |
|---|---|
| French | son, sa, ses , le sien, la sienne, les siens |
| German | sein, n, seine , seiner, seines, der Seine |
| Portuguese | seu , dele |
| Spanish | su, sus , suyo, suya, suyos, suyas |
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 his come from?
From Middle English hes, from Old English his (“his; its”), from Proto-Germanic *hes (“of this”), genitive of Proto-Germanic *hiz (“this, this one”), from Proto-Indo-European *ḱe-, *ḱey- (“this”). Cognate with Danish, Swedish, Norwegian, Icelandic hans (“his”). More at he; see also its.
Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract).