hair of the dog

/\ˈhɛɹ ɑv ðə ˈdɔɡ\/ noun

The verdict

“hair of the dog” is outside the top-ranked French vocabulary, used as a noun — the kind of word writers most often double-check.

Unranked
below top-frequency French
15
letters

Dominant Wiktionary sense: Boisson alcoolisée que l’on boit au réveil afin d’atténuer la gueule de bois. → voir rallumer la chaudière

Key facts for hair of the dog
PropertyValue
Headwordhair of the dog
LanguageFrench
Part of speechNoun
IPA\ˈhɛɹ ɑv ðə ˈdɔɡ\
Letters15
Misspellings tracked0
Confusable pairs0
SourceWiktionary (kaikki.org)

Where “hair of the dog” sits in French frequency

hair of the dog falls outside the top-100,000 ranked French words — the long-tail zone of technical, archaic, or low-frequency vocabulary, exactly where readers second-guess spellings most.

Beyond rank #100,000. Source: FrequencyWords open word-frequency list.

Spelling & Dictionary Insight

The French entry for hair of the dog is 15 letters long, classified as a noun, and transcribed in the International Phonetic Alphabet as \ˈhɛɹ ɑv ðə ˈdɔɡ\. It sits outside the most-frequent rank tiers, which is often why uncommon words generate more spelling variants per reader. The dominant gloss from Wiktionary reads: "Boisson alcoolisée que l’on boit au réveil afin d’atténuer la gueule de bois. → voir rallumer la chaudière".

No misspelling variants are generated for hair of the dog in our index, suggesting the orthography follows predictable French patterns. It is not paired with a close-neighbour confusable in our dataset, which tends to mean the word is visually distinctive enough to stand on its own.

No explicit etymology string is stored for this entry, so spelling patterns must be inferred from the word's phoneme-to-grapheme mapping rather than from a documented borrowing chain. For readers arriving here from a spelling check, the authoritative guidance is: the correct French form is hair of the dog, spelled H-A-I-R- -O-F- -T-H-E- -D-O-G, and any other sequence of those letters, regardless of how natural it feels, is a misspelling in standard orthography.

Definition

  1. 1
    Boisson alcoolisée que l’on boit au réveil afin d’atténuer la gueule de bois. → voir rallumer la chaudière

Synonyms

Frequently Asked Questions

How do you spell "hair of the dog"?
"hair of the dog" is spelled H-A-I-R- -O-F- -T-H-E- -D-O-G. The IPA pronunciation is \ˈhɛɹ ɑv ðə ˈdɔɡ\.
What does "hair of the dog" mean?
As a noun, "hair of the dog" means: Boisson alcoolisée que l’on boit au réveil afin d’atténuer la gueule de bois. → voir rallumer la chaudière
How do you pronounce "hair of the dog"?
The IPA (International Phonetic Alphabet) transcription for "hair of the dog" is \ˈhɛɹ ɑv ðə ˈdɔɡ\. Click the speaker icon on the pronunciation badge above to hear it spoken aloud where audio is available.
What language does "hair of the dog" come from?
"hair of the dog" is a French word. PlainSpell covers definitions, pronunciations, and spelling data across English, Spanish, Portuguese, French, and German.
Is PlainSpell free to use?
Yes, PlainSpell is a completely free word reference. You can look up definitions, pronunciations, confusable pairs, homophones, and spelling corrections across 5 languages without any sign-up or subscription.

Using “hair of the dog”

The practical upshot for anyone who landed here from a spell-check.

  • The one correct French spelling is H-A-I-R- -O-F- -T-H-E- -D-O-G — every other letter order is a misspelling in standard orthography.
  • Say it as \ˈhɛɹ ɑv ðə ˈdɔɡ\ (IPA); tap the speaker on the pronunciation badge to hear it where audio exists.
  • Browse more French words and confusable pairs in the same reference. French words

Nearby French words

Other entries that begin with the letter H in our French index:

Explore PlainSpell

Data Source: Wiktionary (via kaikki.org), licensed under CC BY-SA & GFDL. Word ordering uses an open word-frequency list; misspelling variants are generated by edit-distance from the correct headword.