hell
English
Alternative forms
Pronunciation
Etymology 1
From Middle English helle, from Old English hel, hell, helle (“nether world, abode of the dead, hell”), from Proto-Germanic *haljō (“nether world, concealed place”), from Proto-Indo-European *ḱel- (“to cover, conceal, save”). Cognate with Saterland Frisian Hälle (“hell”), West Frisian hel (“hell”), Dutch hel (“hell”), German Low German Hell (“hell”), German Hölle (“hell”), Norwegian helvete (“hell”), Icelandic hel (“the abode of the dead, death”). Also related to the Hel of Germanic mythology. See also hele.
Proper noun
hell
- In various religions, the place where some or all spirits are believed to go after death
- (in many religions, uncountable) The place where sinners suffer after death
- May you rot in hell!
- 1667, John Milton, Paradise Lost:
- Better to reign in Hell than serve in Heaven.
- 1916, James Joyce, Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man:
- Hell is a strait and dark and foul-smelling prison, an abode of demons and lost souls, filled with fire and smoke.
Synonyms
Antonyms
- (in many religions, uncountable): heaven
Translations
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Noun
hell (countable and uncountable, plural hells)
- (countable, hyperbolic, figuratively) A place or situation of great suffering in life.
- My new boss is making my job a hell.
- I went through hell to get home today.
- 1879, General William T. Sherman, commencement address at the Michigan Military Academy
- There is many a boy here today who looks on war as all glory, but, boys, it is all hell.
- 1986, “Disposable Heroes”, in Metallica (music), Master of Puppets:
- Why, am I dying? / Kill, have no fear / Lie, live off lying / Hell, hell is here
- (countable) A place for gambling.
- (Can we date this quote by W. Black and provide title, author’s full name, and other details?)
- a convenient little gambling hell for those who had grown reckless
- 1906 January–October, Joseph Conrad, chapter II, in The Secret Agent: A Simple Tale, London: Methuen & Co., […], published 1907, →OCLC; The Secret Agent: A Simple Tale (Collection of British Authors; 3995), copyright edition, Leipzig: Bernhard Tauchnitz, 1907, →OCLC, page 15:
- But there was also about him an indescribable air which no mechanic could have acquired in the practice of his handicraft however dishonestly exercised: [...] the air of moral nihilism common to keepers of gambling hells and disorderly houses; [...]
- (Can we date this quote by W. Black and provide title, author’s full name, and other details?)
- (figuratively) An extremely hot place.
- You don’t have a snowball's chance in hell.
- (sometimes considered vulgar) Used as an intensifier in phrases grammatically requiring a noun.
- I’m as mad as hell and I’m not going to take it any more.
- What the hell is wrong with you?!
- He says he’s going home early? Like hell he is.
- (obsolete) A place into which a tailor throws shreds, or a printer discards broken type.
- (Can we find and add a quotation of Hudibras to this entry?)
Derived terms
- as hell
- catch hell
- forty minutes of hell
- hella
- hellagood
- hell and half of Georgia
- hellbender
- hell-bent
- hell-fire
- hell for leather
- hell hath no fury like a woman scorned
- hellish
- hell of a
- hell on earth
- hell on wheels
- hellraiser
- hell's delight
- hellspawn
- hell to pay
- hell week
- like hell
- living hell
- no screaming hell
- the hell
- the hell out of
- the hell with it
- the hell you say
- to hell with
- what the hell
Translations
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Interjection
hell
- (impolite, sometimes considered vulgar) Used to express discontent, unhappiness, or anger.
- Oh, hell! I got another parking ticket.
- 1596-97, William Shakespeare, The Merchant Of Venice, Act II Scene 7
- O hell! what have we here?
- A carrion Death, within whose empty eye
- There is a written scroll! [...]
- (impolite, sometimes considered vulgar) Used to emphasize.
- Hell, yeah!
- (impolite, sometimes considered vulgar) Used to introduce an intensified statement following an understated one; nay; not only that, but.
- [Do it, or, r]est assured, there will be no more Middle Eastern crisis – hell, there will be no more Middle East!
Translations
See also
Adverb
hell (not comparable)
- (postpositional) Alternative form of the hell or like hell.
- 1991, Stephen Fry, The Liar, p. 35:
- ‘I know whether a boy is telling me the truth or not.’
‘Thank you, sir.’
Did he hell. They never bloody did.
- ‘I know whether a boy is telling me the truth or not.’
- 1991, Stephen Fry, The Liar, p. 35:
Etymology 2
From German hellen (“to brighten, burnish”). Related to Dutch hel (“clear, bright”) and German hell (“clear, bright”).
Verb
hell (third-person singular simple present hells, present participle helling, simple past and past participle helled)
- (rare, metal-working) To add luster to, burnish (silver or gold).
- (Can we date this quote by G. Smith and provide title, author’s full name, and other details?)
- To hell gold or gilt workː take two ounces of tartar, two ounces of sulfur.. and it will give it a fine luster.
- (Can we date this quote by G. Smith and provide title, author’s full name, and other details?)
References
Etymology 3
From Old Norse hella (“to pour”). Cognate with Icelandic hella (“to pour”), Norwegian helle (“to pour”), Swedish hälla (“to pour”). See also hield.
Verb
hell (third-person singular simple present hells, present participle helling, simple past and past participle helled)
- (rare) To pour.
- (Can we date this quote by Harvest and provide title, author’s full name, and other details?)
- Gosh, the sickle went into me handː Down hell'd the blood.
- (Can we date this quote by Harvest and provide title, author’s full name, and other details?)
References
Albanian
Etymology
From Proto-Albanian *skōla, from Proto-Indo-European *(s)kol- (“stake”); compare Lithuanian kuõlas, Polish kóɫ, Ancient Greek σκύλος (skúlos).
Noun
hell m
Cornish
Noun
hell
- Aspirate mutation of kell.
Estonian
Etymology
Of Finnic origin. Cognate to Finnish hellä and Votic ellä.
Adjective
hell (genitive hella, partitive hella, comparative hellam, superlative kõige hellam)
Declension
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German
Etymology
From Middle High German hel (“resounding, loud, shining, bright”), from Old High German hel (“resounding”), from Proto-Germanic *halliz (“resounding”), from Proto-Germanic *hellaną (“to resound, make a sound”), from Proto-Indo-European *kelh₁- (“to call, make noise”). Cognate with Dutch hel.
Pronunciation
Adjective
hell (comparative heller, superlative am hellsten)
- clear, bright, light
- 1918, Elisabeth von Heyking, Die Orgelpfeifen, in: Zwei Erzählungen, Phillipp Reclam jun. Verlag, page 9:
- So dunkel und schauerlich die Gruft aussah, wenn man durch die blinden, bestaubten Scheibchen der kleinen Fenster hineinblickte, so hell und freundlich war oben die Kirche.
- Just as dark and eerie the crypt looked like, if one looked in it through the cloudy, dusted little panes of the small windows, as bright and friendly was the church above.
- So dunkel und schauerlich die Gruft aussah, wenn man durch die blinden, bestaubten Scheibchen der kleinen Fenster hineinblickte, so hell und freundlich war oben die Kirche.
- 1918, Elisabeth von Heyking, Die Orgelpfeifen, in: Zwei Erzählungen, Phillipp Reclam jun. Verlag, page 9:
Declension
Antonyms
Derived terms
Related terms
Further reading
- “hell” in Duden online
Luxembourgish
Etymology
From Old High German hel. Cognate with German helle, Dutch hel.
Pronunciation
Adjective
hell (masculine hellen, neuter hellt, comparative méi hell, superlative am hellsten)
Declension
number and gender | singular | plural | |||
---|---|---|---|---|---|
masculine | feminine | neuter | all genders | ||
predicative | hien ass hell | si ass hell | et ass hell | si si(nn) hell | |
nominative / accusative |
attributive and/or after determiner | hellen | hell | hellt | hell |
independent without determiner | helles | heller | |||
dative | after any declined word | hellen | heller | hellen | hellen |
as first declined word | hellem | hellem |
Norwegian Bokmål
Etymology 1
Noun
hell n (definite singular hellet, indefinite plural hell, definite plural hella or hellene)
Etymology 2
See the etymology of the corresponding lemma form.
Verb
hell
- imperative of helle
Further reading
- “hell” in The Bokmål Dictionary.
Norwegian Nynorsk
Etymology
Ultimately from Old Norse heill.
Noun
hell n (definite singular hellet, indefinite plural hell, definite plural hella)
Further reading
- “hell” in The Nynorsk Dictionary.
Old English
Etymology
From Anglo-Frisian *hællju [ˈhælʲ.lʲu], from West Germanic *hallju, from Proto-Germanic *haljō, ultimately from Proto-Indo-European *ḱel- (“to cover, hide, conceal”). Cognate with Old Frisian helle, Old Saxon hellia, Old Dutch hella, Old High German hella, Old Norse hel, Gothic 𐌷𐌰𐌻𐌾𐌰 (halja).
Compare German hell (“light”).
Pronunciation
Noun
hell f
Derived terms
Descendants
- English 1-syllable words
- English terms with IPA pronunciation
- English terms with audio links
- Rhymes:English/ɛl
- English terms inherited from Middle English
- English terms derived from Middle English
- English terms inherited from Old English
- English terms derived from Old English
- English terms inherited from Proto-Germanic
- English terms derived from Proto-Germanic
- English terms derived from Proto-Indo-European
- English lemmas
- English proper nouns
- English uncountable nouns
- English terms with quotations
- English terms with usage examples
- English nouns
- English countable nouns
- English hyperboles
- Requests for date/W. Black
- English vulgarities
- English terms with obsolete senses
- Requests for quotations/Hudibras
- English interjections
- English adverbs
- English uncomparable adverbs
- English terms derived from German
- English verbs
- English terms with rare senses
- Requests for date/G. Smith
- English terms derived from Old Norse
- Requests for date/Harvest
- English intensifiers
- English swear words
- en:Afterlife
- en:Death
- Albanian terms derived from Proto-Albanian
- Albanian terms derived from Proto-Indo-European
- Albanian lemmas
- Albanian nouns
- Albanian masculine nouns
- Cornish non-lemma forms
- Cornish mutated nouns
- Cornish aspirate-mutation forms
- Estonian lemmas
- Estonian adjectives
- German terms inherited from Middle High German
- German terms derived from Middle High German
- German terms inherited from Old High German
- German terms derived from Old High German
- German terms inherited from Proto-Germanic
- German terms derived from Proto-Germanic
- German terms derived from Proto-Indo-European
- German 1-syllable words
- German terms with IPA pronunciation
- German terms with audio links
- German lemmas
- German adjectives
- Luxembourgish terms derived from Old High German
- Luxembourgish 1-syllable words
- Luxembourgish terms with IPA pronunciation
- Rhymes:Luxembourgish/æl
- Luxembourgish terms with homophones
- Luxembourgish lemmas
- Luxembourgish adjectives
- Norwegian Bokmål terms derived from Old Norse
- Norwegian Bokmål lemmas
- Norwegian Bokmål nouns
- Norwegian Bokmål neuter nouns
- Norwegian Bokmål non-lemma forms
- Norwegian Bokmål verb forms
- Norwegian Nynorsk terms derived from Old Norse
- Norwegian Nynorsk lemmas
- Norwegian Nynorsk nouns
- Norwegian Nynorsk neuter nouns
- Old English terms inherited from Proto-Germanic
- Old English terms derived from Proto-Germanic
- Old English terms derived from Proto-Indo-European
- Old English terms with IPA pronunciation
- Old English lemmas
- Old English nouns
- Old English feminine nouns