Word Pronunciation & Dictionary

hanoi hilton

Word Rarity Rare

Frequency: Zipf frequency 3.23 in modern English

Syllables: hanoi hilton
IPA

17

Scrabble Score

11

Letters

1

Syllables

7

Unique Chars

Meaning

name

Hỏa Lò Prison in Vietnam, where prisoners of war were held and tortured.

American usage; Slang

Example Sentences

"The Hilton Hanoi Opera hotel has opened, a few blocks from Hoa Lo, the infamous “Hanoi Hilton” where American prisoners were held during the Vietnam War. (The few remaining cells of that prison have been preserved as a museum.)"
"Those thoughts sustained him after he was shot down and forced to eject from his F-105 Thunderchief during a bombing mission over North Vietnam on Oct. 27, 1967, and they continued to sustain him in prison camps, including the notorious “Hanoi Hilton,” where he was starved, tortured and subjected to mock executions."

Etymology

From Hanoi + Hilton. An alliterative construction, pairing the location Hanoi (metonymically referring to North Vietnam) with a word referring to lodgings. An ironic reference to the Hilton chain of luxury hotels.

Usage

American usage
Slang

Inflected Forms

the Hanoi Hilton (canonical)

Questions

What does hanoi hilton mean?: Hỏa Lò Prison in Vietnam, where prisoners of war were held and tortured.
Where does hanoi hilton come from?: From Hanoi + Hilton. An alliterative construction, pairing the location Hanoi (metonymically referring to North Vietnam) with a word referring to lodgings. An ironic reference to the Hilton chain of luxury hotels.

How to pronounce hanoi hilton

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