hug
/hʌɡ/noun, verb
hug is spelled H-U-G: 3 letters and one syllable. It appears 12 times per million words in written English, the 6,138th most frequent word form (wordfreq, 2021 data). As a noun, hug means “A close embrace, especially when charged with an emotion such as affection, joy, relief, lust, anger, aggression, compassion, or the like, as opposed…” (English Wiktionary, September 2026). The plural of hug is hugs.
How many letters and syllables are in hug?
| Letters | 3: H-U-G |
|---|---|
| Syllables | 1 (from its American pronunciation) |
| In writing | 12 times per million words; the 6,138th 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 hug?
Hug appears 12 times per million words in written English, the 6,138th 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 hug?
- /hʌɡ/
- /hʊɡ/
Hug 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-hug.ogg, Wikimedia Commons (author and licence on each file's page).
What rhymes with hug?
No other word on PlainSpell ends in the same sounds as hug.
Spelled with the same letters in another order: ugh.
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 hug
- hugs plural, present, singular, he/she/it
- hugging participle, present
- hugged participle, past
Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract).
What does hug mean?
The meanings the English Wiktionary records, quoted as written there (source below).
noun
- 1
A close embrace, especially when charged with an emotion such as affection, joy, relief, lust, anger, aggression, compassion, or the like, as opposed to being characterized by formality, equivocation or ambivalence (a half-embrace).
- 2
A particular grip in wrestling.
verb
- 1
obsoleteTo crouch; to huddle as with cold.
- 2
To cling closely together.
- 3
To embrace by holding closely, especially in the arms.
Billy hugged Danny until he felt better.
- 4
To stay close to.
to hug the shore, to hug the coastline
- 5
To hold fast; to cling to; to cherish.
Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract).
Hug in Spanish, French, German and Portuguese
| Language | Words |
|---|---|
| French | accolade, embrassement, embrassade, étreinte, câlin , étreindre |
| German | Umarmung , umarmen, drücken , sich umarmen |
| Portuguese | abraço , abraçar |
| Spanish | abrazo, apapacho, apapuche , apapachar, apapuchar , abrazar |
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 hug come from?
From earlier hugge (“to embrace, clasp with the arms”) (1560), probably representing a conflation of huck (“to crouch, huddle down”) and Old Norse hugga (“to comfort, console”), from hugr (“mind, heart, thought”), from Proto-Germanic *hugiz (“mind, thought, sense”), cognate with Icelandic hugga (“to comfort”), Old English hyġe (“thought”) (whence high (Etymology 2)).
Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract).