hang
/hæːŋ/
Word Rarity
Uncommon
Frequency: 4.60 in modern English
8
Scrabble Score
4
Letters
1
Syllables
4
Unique Chars
Meaning
verb
To rebound unexpectedly or unusually slowly, due to backward spin on the ball or imperfections of the ground.
Intransitive verb
verb
To hold or bear in a suspended or inclined manner or position instead of erect.
Transitive verb
verb
To cause (something) to be suspended, as from a hook, hanger, hinges, or the like.
Transitive verb
Example Sentences
- "The lights hung from the ceiling."
- "On the dark-green walls hung a series of eight engravings, portraits of early Victorian belles, clad in lace and tarletan ball dresses, clipped from an old Book of Beauty. Mrs. Bunting was very fond of these pictures; she thought they gave the drawing-room a note of elegance and refinement."
- "The smoke hung in the room."
- "It was a couple of days after the crash, with the smell of burning still hanging in the air from the incinerated wreckage of Coach H, where 31 passengers lost their lives, when I visited the West London site."
- "The jockey claimed that the horse hung towards the outside[…]"
- "He hung his head in shame."
Etymology
From Middle English hangen, hongen, from a fusion of Old English hōn (“to hang, be hanging”, transitive verb) and hangian (“to hang, cause to hang”, intransitive verb), respectively from the transitive verb Proto-West Germanic *hą̄han and the intransitive verb *hangēn; also probably influenced by Old Norse hengja (“to suspend”) and hanga (“to be suspended”); all from Proto-Germanic *hanhaną and *hangāną, from Proto-Indo-European *ḱenk- (“to waver, be in suspense”). See also Dutch hangen, Low German hangen and hängen, German hängen, Norwegian Bokmål henge, Norwegian Nynorsk henga; also Gothic 𐌷𐌰𐌷𐌰𐌽 (hāhan), Hittite 𒂵𒀀𒀭𒂵 (/kānk-/, “to hang”), Sanskrit शङ्कते (śáṅkate, “is in doubt, hesitates”), Latin cūnctārī (“to delay”).
Origin
Word Breakdown
Regional Pronunciation
- American English: /hæːŋ/
- British English: /hæŋ/
Usage
Inflected Forms
Derived Forms
Phrases
Synonyms
hang out
handpan
be suspend
dangle
float
hover
lynch
string up
go to the gallows
swing
take a ride to Tyburn
hang about