hell

• Hell (proper noun)
• hel, helle (obsolete)

• enPR: hĕl, IPA^(key): /hɛl/

• Audio (US):

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• Audio (UK):

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• Rhymes: -ɛl

From Middle English helle, from Old English hell, from Proto-West Germanic *hallju, from Proto-Germanic *haljō (“concealed place, netherworld”), 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.

hell

1. (in many religions, uncountable) A place of torment where some or all sinners are believed to go after death and evil spirits are believed to be.

   Antonym: heaven

   May you rot in hell!

   • 1611, The Holy Bible, […] (King James Version), London: […] Robert Barker, […], →OCLC, Proverbs 23:14:

     Thou shalt beat him with the rod, and shalt deliver his soul from hell.

   • 1667, John Milton, Paradise Lost:

     Better to reign in Hell than serve in Heaven.

   • 1697, [William] Congreve, The Mourning Bride, a Tragedy. […], London: […] Jacob Tonson, […], →OCLC, Act III, page 39:

     Heav'n has no Rage, like Love to Hatred turn'd, / Nor Hell a Fury, like a Woman ſcorn'd.

   • 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.

• See Thesaurus:afterlife

• → Korean: 헬 (hel)

hell (countable and uncountable, plural hells)

1. (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.

   callback hell; <table> hell; <div> hell (computer programming)

   • 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

   • 2024 May 8, Damian Carrington, “‘Hopeless and broken’: why the world’s top climate scientists are in despair. World’s top climate scientists expect global heating to blast past 1.5C target”, in The Guardian, UK:

     So how do the scientists cope with their work being ignored for decades, and living in a world their findings indicate is on a “highway to hell”?.

2. (countable) A place for gambling.
   • 1848 November – 1850 December, William Makepeace Thackeray, chapter 61, in The History of Pendennis. […], volume (please specify |volume=I or II), London: Bradbury and Evans, […], published 1849–1850, →OCLC:

     Here’s five-and-twenty for you. Don’t be losing it at the hells now.

   • 1877, William Black, Green Pastures and Piccadilly:

     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 (Collection of British Authors; 3995), copyright edition, London: Bernhard Tauchnitz, published 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; [...]

3. (figuratively) An extremely hot place.

   You don’t have a snowball's chance in hell.

4. (sometimes 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 anymore.

   What the hell is wrong with you?!

   He says he’s going home early? Like hell he is.

5. (obsolete) A place into which a tailor throws shreds, or a printer discards broken type.
   • 1662 (indicated as 1663), [Samuel Butler], “[The First Part of Hudibras]”, in Hudibras. The First and Second Parts. […], London: […] John Martyn and Henry Herringman, […], published 1678; republished in A[lfred] R[ayney] Waller, editor, Hudibras: Written in the Time of the Late Wars, Cambridge, Cambridgeshire: University Press, 1905, →OCLC:

     This sturdy Squire, he had, as well
     As the bold Trojan Knight, seen Hell.

6. In certain games of chase, a place to which those who are caught are carried for detention.
7. (colloquial, usually with on) Something extremely painful or harmful (to)

   That steep staircase is hell on my knees.

hell

1. (colloquial, sometimes vulgar) Used to express discontent, unhappiness, or anger.

   Oh, hell! I got another parking ticket.

   • c. 1596–1598 (date written), William Shakespeare, “The Merchant of Venice”, in Mr. William Shakespeares Comedies, Histories, & Tragedies […] (First Folio), London: […] Isaac Iaggard, and Ed[ward] Blount, published 1623, →OCLC, [Act II, scene vii]:

     O hell! what have we here?
     A carrion Death, within whose empty eye
     There is a written scroll! […]

2. (colloquial, sometimes vulgar, no longer productive) Used to emphasize.

   Hell, yeah!

3. (colloquial, sometimes vulgar) Used to introduce an intensified statement following an understated one; nay; not only that, but.

   Do it, or, rest assured, there will be no more Middle Eastern crisis – hell, there will be no more Middle East!

• hell's bells
• hell no
• hells
• hell yes, hell yeah, hells yeah
• oh hell

• damn
• heck

hell (not comparable)

1. (postpositional) Alternative form of the hell or like hell.
   • 1991 September, Stephen Fry, chapter 1, in The Liar, London: Heinemann, →ISBN, section II, page 24:

     ‘[…] I know whether a boy is telling me the truth or not.’
     ‘Thank you, sir.’
     Did he hell. They never bloody did.

2. (Australia, New Zealand, colloquial, sometimes vulgar) Very; used to emphasize strongly.

   Synonym: hella

   That was hell good!

   They're hell sexy.

hell (third-person singular simple present hells, present participle helling, simple past and past participle helled)

1. To make hellish; to place (someone) in hell; to make (a place) into a hell. [from 17th c.]
2. To hurry, rush. [from 19th c.]
   • 1929, William Faulkner, The Sound and the Fury:

     I had already lost thirteen points, all because she had to come helling in there at twelve, worrying me about that letter.

3. (intransitive) To move quickly and loudly; to raise hell as part of motion.

   He was helling down the road with his radio blaring.

From German hellen (“to brighten, burnish”). Related to Dutch hel (“clear, bright”) and German hell (“clear, bright”).

hell (third-person singular simple present hells, present participle helling, simple past and past participle helled)

1. (rare, metal-working) To add luster to; to burnish (silver or gold).
   • 1770, Godfrey Smith, The Laboratory: Or, School of Arts:

     To hell gold or gilt workː take two ounces of tartar, two ounces of sulfur.. and it will give it a fine luster.

From Middle English hellen, from Old Norse hella (“to pour”), from Proto-Germanic *halþijaną (“to incline, tip; to pour out, empty”), from Proto-Indo-European *ḱel- (“to lean, incline”). Cognate with Icelandic hella (“to pour”), Norwegian helle (“to pour”), Swedish hälla (“to pour”). See also English hield.

hell (third-person singular simple present hells, present participle helling, simple past and past participle helled)

1. (rare) To pour.
   • 18th century, Josiah Relph, The Harvest; or Bashful Shepherd

     Gosh, the sickle went into me handː Down hell'd the bluid.

From Proto-Albanian *skōla, from Proto-Indo-European *(s)kol- (“stake”); compare Lithuanian kuõlas, Polish kół, Ancient Greek σκύλος (skúlos).

hell m (plural heje, definite helli, definite plural hejet)

1. skewer
2. spear
3. icicle
4. (adverb) standing straight without moving

hell

1. aspirate mutation of kell

From Proto-Finnic *hellä. Cognate to Finnish hellä and Votic elle.

hell (genitive hella, partitive hella, comparative hellem, superlative kõige hellem)

1. tender, gentle

Declension of hell (ÕS type 22i/külm, length gradation)
		singular	plural
nominative		hell	hellad
accusative	nom.
	gen.	hella
genitive			hellade
partitive		hella	helli hellasid
illative		hella hellasse	helladesse hellisse
inessive		hellas	hellades hellis
elative		hellast	helladest hellist
allative		hellale	helladele hellile
adessive		hellal	helladel hellil
ablative		hellalt	helladelt hellilt
translative		hellaks	helladeks helliks
terminative		hellani	helladeni
essive		hellana	helladena
abessive		hellata	helladeta
comitative		hellaga	helladega

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.

• IPA^(key): /hɛl/

• Audio (Germany):

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• Audio (Austria):

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hell (strong nominative masculine singular heller, comparative heller, superlative am hellsten)

1. clear, bright, light

   Antonym: dunkel

   • 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.

• hellhörig
• hellsichtig
• hellwach

• sternenhell
• taghell

• “hell” in Digitales Wörterbuch der deutschen Sprache
• “hell” in Uni Leipzig: Wortschatz-Lexikon
• “hell” in Duden online

From Old High German hel, related to the verb hellan, from Proto-Germanic *hellaną (“to resound”). Cognate with German helle, Dutch hel.

• IPA^(key): /hæl/
• Rhymes: -æl
• Homophone: Häll

hell (masculine hellen, neuter hellt, comparative méi hell, superlative am hellsten)

1. clear, bright
2. light, pale

hell

1. alternative form of helle

hell

1. alternative form of helle

From Old Norse heill.

hell n (definite singular hellet, indefinite plural hell, definite plural hella or hellene)

1. luck

See the etymology of the corresponding lemma form.

hell

1. imperative of helle

• “hell” in The Bokmål Dictionary.

Ultimately from Old Norse heill.

hell n (definite singular hellet, indefinite plural hell, definite plural hella)

1. luck

From Old Norse heldr.

hell

1. (nonstandard or dialectal) alternative form of heller (“rather, either; neither”)
   • 1951, Olav H. Hauge, Din veg:

     Og ikkje vardar du vegen, du hell.
     Og vinden stryk ut ditt far i aude fjell.

     And you don't mark out the road either.
     And the wind wipes away your trail amid empty mountains.

• “hell” in The Nynorsk Dictionary.
• “heller”, in Norsk Ordbok: ordbok over det norske folkemålet og det nynorske skriftmålet, Oslo: Samlaget, 1950-2016
• “helder” in Ivar Aasen (1873) Norsk Ordbog med dansk Forklaring

• hel

From Proto-West Germanic *hallju, from Proto-Germanic *haljō, ultimately from Proto-Indo-European *ḱel- (“to cover, hide, conceal”).

Compare German hell (“light”).

• IPA^(key): /xell/, [heɫ]

hell f

1. hell

Strong ō-stem:

• Middle English: helle, hel, hell, hælle (Early Middle English)
  • English: hell, Hell
  • Scots: hell, Hell

From Old Swedish heel, from Old Norse heill (“good omen, luck”, literally “whole, healthy”). Doublet of hel.

hell

1. (archaic) hail (exclamation or greeting)

• hell seger (“Sieg Heil”)

• hell in Svensk ordbok (SO)
• hell in Svenska Akademiens ordlista (SAOL)
• hell in Svenska Akademiens ordbok (SAOB)
• hell in Elof Hellquist, Svensk etymologisk ordbok (1st ed., 1922)

• IPA^(key): /hɛɬ/

hell (not mutable)

1. (neologism, literary) feminine singular of hyll

This is a rare term formed by analogy with cref, gwen etc. as feminine forms of cryf (“strong”), gwyn (“white”) etc., rather than inherited.

• 1918, Ellis Humphrey Evans (Hedd Wyn), translated by Gillian Clarke, Rhyfel [War]‎^[1]:

  […] O'i ôl mae dyn, yn deyrn a gwreng, / Yn codi ei awdurdod hell.

  […] Instead, man, king or peasantry, / Raises his gross authority.

hell (not mutable)

1. h-prothesized form of ell

• D. G. Lewis, N. Lewis, editors (2005–present), “hell”, in Gweiadur: the Welsh–English Dictionary, Gwerin
• R. J. Thomas, G. A. Bevan, P. J. Donovan, A. Hawke et al., editors (1950–present), “hell”, in Geiriadur Prifysgol Cymru Online (in Welsh), University of Wales Centre for Advanced Welsh & Celtic Studies