hoof
/hʊf/
Word Rarity
Rare
Frequency: 3.06 in modern English
10
Scrabble Score
4
Letters
1
Syllables
3
Unique Chars
Meaning
noun
The tip of a toe of an ungulate such as a horse, ox or deer, strengthened by a thick keratin covering.
noun
The heel of a loaf of bread.
Example Sentences
- "[…] I ſee Th’ Inſulting Tyrant prancing o’er the Field Strow’d with Rome’s Citizens, and drench’d in Slaughter, His Horſe’s Hoofs wet with Patrician Blood."
- "Get your hooves off me!"
- "He is a huge man, six feet four on bare hoofs and composed of two hundred and seventy pounds of solid bone and muscle."
- "More minutes drifted by. Pierrot had another chance - and missed. At one point the ball fell to Andy Robertson and instead of taking his time and clearing, he hoofed it away as if his life depended on it. His football life, for sure."
Etymology
Etymology tree Proto-Indo-European *ḱoph₂ós Proto-Germanic *hōfaz Proto-West Germanic *hōf Old English hōf Middle English hof English hoof Inherited from Middle English hof, houf, houve, hove, from Old English hōf, from Proto-Germanic *hōfaz (compare West Frisian hoef, Dutch hoef, German Huf, Danish hov, Norwegian hov, Swedish hov), from Proto-Indo-European *ḱoph₂ós (compare Sanskrit शफ (śaphá, “hoof, claw”), Avestan 𐬯𐬀𐬟𐬀 (safa, “hoof”), possibly Czech, Polish kopyto).
Origin
Word Breakdown
Regional Pronunciation
- American English: /hʊf/
Usage
Subject
Wiktionary places this term in Medicine.