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ENGLISH · A WORD WITH POSSIBILITIES

hedge.

A thicket of bushes or other shrubbery, especially one planted as a fence between two portions of land, or to separate the parts of a garden.

5 characters1 syllables approx.English language

Meaning & usage

noun/ˈhɛd͡ʒ/Canada, General-American, India, Received-Pronunciation, Scotland/ˈhed͡ʒ/Australia/ˈhe̝d͡ʒ/New-Zealand
  1. A thicket of bushes or other shrubbery, especially one planted as a fence between two portions of land, or to separate the parts of a garden.

    He trims the hedge once a week.
  2. A barrier (often consisting of a line of persons or objects) to protect someone or something from harm.

  3. A mound of earth, stone- or turf-faced, often topped with bushes, used as a fence between any two portions of land.

    Cornwall · Devon · UK · West-Country
  4. A noncommittal or intentionally ambiguous statement.

  5. Contract or arrangement reducing one's exposure to risk (for example the risk of price movements or interest rate movements).

    The asset class acts as a hedge.
    A hedge is an investment position intended to offset potential losses/gains that may be incurred by a companion investment. In simple language, a hedge is used to reduce any substantial losses/gains suffered by an individual or an organization.
  6. With indication of a person's upbringing, or professional activities, taking place by the side of the road; being third-rate, poor, shoddy.

    Ireland · UK · attributive · figuratively
    He then traced them from place to place, till at last he found two of them drinking together, with a third person, at a hedge-tavern near Aldersgate.
Where this word comes from

From Middle English hegge, from Old English heċġ, from Proto-West Germanic *haggju, from Proto-Germanic *hagjō, from Proto-Indo-European *kagʰyóm (“enclosure”). Cognate with Dutch heg, German Hecke. Doublet of hey (a choreographic figure) and quay. More at haw.

verb/ˈhɛd͡ʒ/Canada, General-American, India, Received-Pronunciation, Scotland/ˈhed͡ʒ/Australia/ˈhe̝d͡ʒ/New-Zealand
  1. To enclose with a hedge or hedges.

    transitive
  2. To obstruct or surround.

    transitive
  3. To offset the risk associated with.

    transitive
  4. To avoid verbal commitment.

    ambitransitive
    He carefully hedged his statements with weasel words.
  5. To construct or repair a hedge.

    intransitive
  6. To reduce one's exposure to risk.

    intransitive
Where this word comes from

Inherited from Middle English heggen, from the noun (see above).

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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.