hair.
A pigmented filament of keratin which grows from a follicle on the skin of humans and other mammals.
Meaning & usage
A pigmented filament of keratin which grows from a follicle on the skin of humans and other mammals.
The collection or mass of such growths growing from the skin of humans and animals, and forming a covering for any part or the whole body.
Specifically, the collection of hairs on the top and sides of the human head, growing from the scalp.
In the western world, women usually have long hair while men usually have short hair.
A slender outgrowth from the chitinous cuticle of insects, spiders, crustaceans, and other invertebrates. Such hairs are totally unlike those of vertebrates in structure, composition, and mode of growth.
A cellular outgrowth of the epidermis, consisting of one or of several cells, whether pointed, hooked, knobbed, or stellated.
Internal hairs occur in the flower stalk of the yellow frog lily (Nuphar).
Any slender, flexible outgrowth, filament, or fiber growing or projecting from the surface of an object or organism.
A locking spring or other safety device in the lock of a rifle, etc., capable of being released by a slight pressure on a hair-trigger.
Any very small distance, or degree; a hairbreadth.
Just a little louder please—turn that knob a hair to the right.
I won by a hair.
Complexity; difficulty; the quality of being hairy.
Where this word comes from
Etymology tree Proto-Germanic *hērą Proto-West Germanic *hār Old English hǣr Middle English her English hair From Middle English her, heer, hær, from Old English hǣr, from Proto-West Germanic *hār, from Proto-Germanic *hērą (“hair”), from Proto-Indo-European *kes- (“to scrape, comb”). Cognate with Saterland Frisian Hier, Híer (“hair”), West Frisian hier (“hair”), Cimbrian haar, har (“hair”), Dutch haar (“hair”), German and Low German Haar (“hair”), Luxembourgish Hoer (“hair”), Mòcheno hor (“hair”), Yiddish האָר (hor, “hair”), Danish, Norwegian Bokmål, Norwegian Nynorsk, and Swedish hår (“hair”), Faroese and Icelandic hár (“hair”). Eclipsed non-native Middle English cheveler, chevelere (“hair”), borrowed from Old French chevelëure (“hair, head-hair, coiffure, wig”). The modern spelling with ai is not a regular representation of the vowel developed from Middle English. Rather, it is from Middle English here (haircloth) influenced by Old French haire.
To remove the hair from.
To grow hair (where there was a bald spot).
To cause to have or bear hair; to provide with hair
To string the bow for a violin.
Where this word comes from
Etymology tree Proto-Germanic *hērą Proto-West Germanic *hār Old English hǣr Middle English her English hair From Middle English her, heer, hær, from Old English hǣr, from Proto-West Germanic *hār, from Proto-Germanic *hērą (“hair”), from Proto-Indo-European *kes- (“to scrape, comb”). Cognate with Saterland Frisian Hier, Híer (“hair”), West Frisian hier (“hair”), Cimbrian haar, har (“hair”), Dutch haar (“hair”), German and Low German Haar (“hair”), Luxembourgish Hoer (“hair”), Mòcheno hor (“hair”), Yiddish האָר (hor, “hair”), Danish, Norwegian Bokmål, Norwegian Nynorsk, and Swedish hår (“hair”), Faroese and Icelandic hár (“hair”). Eclipsed non-native Middle English cheveler, chevelere (“hair”), borrowed from Old French chevelëure (“hair, head-hair, coiffure, wig”). The modern spelling with ai is not a regular representation of the vowel developed from Middle English. Rather, it is from Middle English here (haircloth) influenced by Old French haire.
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Definitions, grammatical labels, IPA, etymology and examples: Wiktionary contributors, extracted by Kaikki / Wiktextract. Adapted under CC BY-SA 4.0. Selected fields and authored examples are shown; third-party quotations and audio are omitted. See contributor history.
Last enriched 2026-09-10. Definitions are in English. Romanizations are shown when supplied by the source; syllable estimates are omitted for unsupported scripts.