Skip to main content
PlainSpell

hood

/hʊd/noun, verb, adjective

hood is spelled H-O-O-D: 4 letters and one syllable. It appears 16 times per million words in written English, the 5,025th most frequent word form (wordfreq, 2021 data). As a noun, hood means “A head covering placed on falcons to inhibit their vision” (English Wiktionary, September 2026). The plural of hood is hoods or 'hoods.

How many letters and syllables are in hood?

Letters4: H-O-O-D
Syllables1 (from its American pronunciation)
In writing16 times per million words; the 5,025th most frequent word form
Wrong spellings searchednone measured in search
Rhymes with

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 hood?

Hood appears 16 times per million words in written English, the 5,025th 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 hood?

  • US /hʊd/
  • US [hʊ̈d]
  • US [hɪ̈d]

Hood 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-hood.ogg, LL-Q1860_(eng)-Vealhurl--hood.wav, Wikimedia Commons (author and licence on each file's page).

What rhymes with hood?

5 words on PlainSpell end in the same sounds as hood from its last stressed vowel (/ʊd/):

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 hood

  • hoods plural, present, singular, he/she/it
  • hooding participle, present
  • hooded participle, past
  • 'hood
  • 'hoods plural

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

What does hood mean?

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

noun

  1. 1

    A head covering placed on falcons to inhibit their vision.

  2. 2

    A head and neck covering placed on horses to protect against insects and sunlight, to slow coat growth and for warmth.

  3. 3

    A distinctively colored fold of material, representing a university degree.

  4. 4

    An enclosure that protects something, especially from above.

  5. 5

    UKA soft top of a convertible car or carriage.

  6. 6

    CanadaUSThe hinged cover over the engine of a motor vehicle, known as a bonnet in other countries.

  7. 7

    A cover over the engine, driving machinery or inner workings of something.

  8. 8

    A metal covering that leads to a vent to suck away smoke or fumes.

  9. 9

    slangGangster, thug.

  10. 10

    slangA neighborhood.

    What’s goin’ down in the hood?

  11. 11

    slangAny poor suburb or neighbourhood.

  12. 12

    UKPerson wearing a hoodie.

verb

  1. 1

    To cover (something) with a hood.

  2. 2

    To extend out from (something), in the manner of a hood.

  3. 3

    To grow over the eyelid but not the eye itself.

adjective

  1. 1

    Relating to inner-city everyday life, both positive and negative aspects; especially people’s attachment to and love for their neighborhoods.

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

Hood in Spanish, French, German and Portuguese

LanguageWords
Frenchcapuche, capuchon (covering for the head attached to a larger…), capote (soft top of a convertible car or carriage), capot (hinged cover over the engine of a motor…), hotte (metal covering that leads to a vent to suck…), encapuchonner (cover with a hood)
GermanKapuze (covering for the head attached to a larger…), Verdeck (soft top of a convertible car or carriage), Motorhaube (hinged cover over the engine of a motor…), Haube, Kappe, Schutzdach (enclosure that protects something, especially…)
Portuguesecapuz (covering for the head attached to a larger…), capota (soft top of a convertible car or carriage), capô (hinged cover over the engine of a motor…), coifa, exaustor (metal covering that leads to a vent to suck…), quebrada (Relating to inner-city everyday life, both…)
Spanishcapirote, capucha, pasamontaña, pasamontañas (covering for the head attached to a larger…), capota (soft top of a convertible car or carriage), birrete (distinctively coloured fold of material…)

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 hood come from?

From Middle English hood, hod, from Old English hōd, from Proto-West Germanic *hōd, from Proto-Germanic *hōdaz, from Proto-Indo-European *kadʰ- (“to cover”). See also Saterland Frisian Houd (“hat; hood”), West Frisian and Dutch hoed (“hat”), Cimbrian huat, huut (“hat”), German Hut (“hat”), German Low German Hood (“hat; hood”), Luxembourgish Hutt (“hat”); also Proto-Iranian *xawdaH (“hat”) (Avestan 𐬑𐬂𐬛𐬀 (xåda), Old Persian 𐎧𐎢𐎭 (x-u-d /⁠xaudā⁠/)). More at hat.

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

What to look up after hood