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ENGLISH · A WORD WITH POSSIBILITIES

haunch.

The area encompassing the upper thigh, hip and buttocks on one side of a human, primate, or quadruped animal, especially one that can sit on its hindquarters.

6 characters1 syllables approx.English language

Meaning & usage

noun/hɔːn(t)ʃ/Received-Pronunciation/hoːn(t)ʃ/British, Southern, Standard/hɔn(t)ʃ//hɑn(t)ʃ/cot-caught-merger

  1. The area encompassing the upper thigh, hip and buttocks on one side of a human, primate, or quadruped animal, especially one that can sit on its hindquarters.

  2. The loin and leg of a quadruped, especially when used as food.

  3. A squat vertical support structure.

  4. A jerked underhand throw.

    dialectal
Where this word comes from

From Middle English haunche, hanche, from Old French hanche, hance, anche (compare French hanche, Italian anca), from a Germanic source, probably Frankish *ankijā, from Proto-Germanic *ankijǭ (“joint; ankle”), from Proto-Indo-European *ang- (“joint; lith”). Cognate with Old High German ancha, encha, einka (“the leg; joint, bend”) (compare Old High German anchila, enchila (“ankle”), German Hanke (“haunch”), West Frisian hancke (“haunch”). More at ankle.

verb/hɔːn(t)ʃ/Received-Pronunciation/hoːn(t)ʃ/British, Southern, Standard/hɔn(t)ʃ//hɑn(t)ʃ/cot-caught-merger

  1. To provide with a haunch or supporting structure.

    transitive

  2. To throw with an underhand movement.

    dialectal · transitive
Where this word comes from

From Middle English haunche, hanche, from Old French hanche, hance, anche (compare French hanche, Italian anca), from a Germanic source, probably Frankish *ankijā, from Proto-Germanic *ankijǭ (“joint; ankle”), from Proto-Indo-European *ang- (“joint; lith”). Cognate with Old High German ancha, encha, einka (“the leg; joint, bend”) (compare Old High German anchila, enchila (“ankle”), German Hanke (“haunch”), West Frisian hancke (“haunch”). More at ankle.

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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.