heck

CEFRB2

/hɛk/

exclamation · noun

Türkçe translations

Translating…

In plain English

  1. 01

    exclamation

    A mild word used to express surprise, anger, or emphasis.

  2. 02

    exclamation

    Extra detail

    to break, to destroy

Examples

  • What the heck, I'll do it! When shall I start?

  • What the heck are you doing?

At a glance

Sits at B2 on the CEFR scale

Senses
5
Parts of speech
2
Citations
1
Synonyms
4

Deep Dive

exclamation

Extra meaning

  1. to mess up

noun

Extra meanings

  1. The bolt or latch of a door.

  2. A rack for cattle to feed at.

More examples

In context

  • Where the heck does he work?

  • Heck, what did I expect? It's too muddy out to go biking today.

  • You can go to heck as far as I'm concerned.

Synonyms

Quick test

Two questions on this entry. Nothing is scored.

Question 1 · Quick check

The children started to raise blank in the classroom when the teacher left.

Practise this properly in the app, where the word comes back before you forget it.

Nearby

Origin

exclamation

Late 19th century, originally dialectal northern English, from a euphemistic alteration of hell.