hull
/hʌl/noun, verb
hull is spelled H-U-L-L: 4 letters and one syllable. It appears 11 times per million words in written English, the 6,456th most frequent word form (wordfreq, 2021 data). As a noun, hull means “The outer covering of a fruit or seed” (English Wiktionary, September 2026). The plural of hull is hulls.
How many letters and syllables are in hull?
| Letters | 4: H-U-L-L |
|---|---|
| Syllables | 1 (from its American pronunciation) |
| In writing | 11 times per million words; the 6,456th most frequent word form |
| Wrong spellings searched | none measured in search |
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).
How common is hull?
Hull appears 11 times per million words in written English, the 6,456th 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 hull?
- /hʌl/
- /hʊl/
Hull 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: LL-Q1860_(eng)-Vealhurl-hull.wav, Wikimedia Commons (author and licence on each file's page).
Forms of hull
- hulls plural, present, singular, he/she/it
- hulling participle, present
- hulled participle, past
Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract).
What does hull mean?
The meanings the English Wiktionary records, quoted as written there (source below).
noun
- 1
The outer covering of a fruit or seed.
- 2
Any covering.
- 3
The body or frame of a vessel, such as a ship or plane.
- 4
The smallest set that possesses a particular property (such as convexity) and contains every point of A; slightly more formally, the intersection of all sets which possess the specified property and of which A is a subset.
The orthogonal convex hull of an orthogonal polygon is the smallest orthogonally convex polygon that encloses the original polygon.
verb
- 1
To remove the outer covering of a fruit or seed.
She sat on the back porch hulling peanuts.
- 2
obsoleteTo drift; to be carried by the impetus of wind or water on the ship's hull alone, with sails furled.
- 3
To hit (a ship) in the hull with cannon fire etc.
Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract).
Hull in Spanish, French, German and Portuguese
| Language | Words |
|---|---|
| French | coque, cosse , écosser, décortiquer |
| German | Hülse, Schale, Schote , Rumpf |
| Portuguese | casca , descascar , casco |
| Spanish | hollejo, vaina , descascarillar , casco, vaso, carcasa |
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 hull come from?
From Middle English hul, hulle, holle (“seed covering, hull of a ship”), from Old English hulu (“seed covering”), from Proto-Germanic *hul-, perhaps from Proto-Indo-European *ḱel- (“to cover, hide”); or possibly from Proto-Indo-European *kal- (“hard”). Compare Dutch hul (“hood”), German Hülle (“cover, wrap”), Hülse (“hull”); also Old Irish calad, calath (“hard”), Latin callus, callum (“rough skin”), Old Church Slavonic калити (kaliti, “to cool, harden”). For the sense development, compare French coque (“nutshell; ship's hull”), Ancient Greek φάσηλος (phásēlos, “bean pod; yacht”).
Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract).