hazel
/ˈheɪzəl/
Word Rarity
Rare
Frequency: 3.54 in modern English
17
Scrabble Score
5
Letters
2
Syllables
5
Unique Chars
Meaning
noun
A tree or shrub of the genus Corylus, bearing edible nuts called hazelnuts or filberts.
Countable
adj
Of a greenish-brown colour. (often used to refer to eye colour)
name
A female given name from English from the plant or colour hazel. Popular in the U.S. at the turn of the 20th century.
Countable; Uncountable
name
A topographic surname from Middle English for someone who lived near a hazel tree.
Countable; Uncountable
Example Sentences
- "The green turf was velvet underfoot. The blackbirds fluted in the hazels there."
- "Have a tree or two the witches particularly like, such as the alder, larch, cypress and hemlock; then, to counteract any possible evil effects, there must be a holly, yew, hazel, elder, mountain ash or juniper."
- "As she grew up and her hazel eyes became hazeler and her dark hair darker and her white skin whiter, and her form a sigh on every boy’s lips, she concentrated on one dream."
- "The shrewd eyes, more hazel than her son’s but with the same straight brows, were fixed on Clary’s face."
- "SAGE: Don’t my eyes look hazeler? (or: periwinkler) / CHLO: (as GARTH) Yes. / SAGE: You said you loved my hazel eyes. (or: periwinkle) Don’t you love them more hazely? (or: periwinkly)"
- "The drummer’s eyes took the small woman in slowly, starting with her face, down to her feet and then back up into the hazelest eyes she’d ever seen."
Etymology
From Middle English hasel, from Old English hæsl (“hazel, shrub”), from Proto-West Germanic *hasl, from Proto-Germanic *haslaz (“hazel”), from Proto-Indo-European *kóslos (“hazel”). Cognates Cognate with Yola hawlse (“hazel”), Dutch hazel, hazelaar (“hazel”), German Hasel (“hazel”), Vilamovian hozuł (“hazel”), Danish, Norwegian Bokmål, and Swedish hassel (“hazel”), Icelandic hesli (“hazel”), Norwegian Nynorsk hasl, hassel (“hazel”); also Latin corulus, corylus (“hazel”), Irish call, coll (“hazel”), Manx coull (“hazel”), Scottish Gaelic coll (“hazel”), Welsh cyll (“hazel trees”).
Origin
Word Breakdown
- Root: hasel, hæsl, *hasl, *haslaz, *kóslos
Usage
Inflected Forms
hazels (plural)
hazle (alternative, archaic)
more hazel (comparative)
hazeler (comparative, rare)
most hazel (superlative)
hazelest (rare, superlative)
Hasell (alternative)
Hazell (alternative)