hound
/haʊnd/noun, verb
hound is spelled H-O-U-N-D: 5 letters and one syllable. It appears 2.7 times per million words in written English, the 16,455th most frequent word form (wordfreq, 2021 data). As a noun, hound means “A dog, particularly a breed with a good sense of smell developed for hunting other animals” (English Wiktionary, September 2026). The plural of hound is hounds.
How many letters and syllables are in hound?
| Letters | 5: H-O-U-N-D |
|---|---|
| Syllables | 1 (from its American pronunciation) |
| In writing | 2.7 times per million words; the 16,455th most frequent word form |
| Wrong spellings searched | none 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 hound?
Hound appears 2.7 times per million words in written English, the 16,455th 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 hound?
- /haʊnd/
Hound 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-hound.ogg, Wikimedia Commons (author and licence on each file's page).
What rhymes with hound?
No other word on PlainSpell ends in the same sounds as hound.
Spelled with the same letters in another order: hundo.
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 hound
- hounds plural, present, singular, he/she/it
- hounding participle, present
- hounded participle, past
- hune
Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract).
What does hound mean?
The meanings the English Wiktionary records, quoted as written there (source below).
noun
- 1
A dog, particularly a breed with a good sense of smell developed for hunting other animals.
The hounds were baying a fox.
- 2
Any canine animal.
- 3
Someone who seeks something.
- 4
A male who constantly seeks the company of desirable women.
"She had a good many successors, John." "You are such a hound, in that respect, Goodson," said Claywell, "and you have always been such a hound, that it astounds me to find you–unaccompanied."
- 5
A despicable person.
- 6
A houndfish.
- 7
Projections located at the masthead or foremast, serving as a support for the trestletrees and top on which to rest; a foretop.
- 8
A side bar used to strengthen portions of the running gear of a vehicle.
verb
- 1
To persistently harass doggedly.
He hounded me for weeks, but I was simply unable to pay back his loan.
- 2
archaicTo urge on against; to set (dogs) upon in hunting.
Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract).
Hound in Spanish, French, German and Portuguese
| Language | Words |
|---|---|
| French | chien de chasse, braque, molosse, chien courant |
| German | Hund, Jagdhund , Jäger , Schürzenjäger , belästigen, nachstellen |
| Portuguese | cão de caça, sabujo , caçador , mulherengo |
| Spanish | perro de caza, sabueso, cárabo (disused) |
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 hound come from?
Inherited from Middle English hound, from Old English hund, from Proto-West Germanic *hund, from Proto-Germanic *hundaz, from Proto-Indo-European *ḱwṓ. Doublet of canine.
Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract).