hen

CEFRB1

/hɛn/

noun

Türkçe translations

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In plain English

  1. 01

    noun

    An adult female chicken or other female bird.

  2. 02

    noun

    Extra detail

    A female fish (especially a salmon or trout) or crustacean.

Examples

  • The hen sits on her eggs until they hatch.

  • The hen is hatching her chicks.

At a glance

Sits at B1 on the CEFR scale

Senses
5
Parts of speech
1
Citations
5
Synonyms
5

Also pronounced

  • /hen/

Deep Dive

noun

Extra meanings

  1. A female of other bird species, particularly a sexually mature female fowl.

  2. A female chicken (Gallus gallus), especially a sexually mature one kept for her eggs.

  3. A woman.

More examples

In context

  • Don't cry, hen. Everything will be all right.

  • In Tain, north of Inverness, staff detected 11 males and at least seven hens – the highest number there since 2011.

  • Hen, a woman. A cock and hen club; a club composed of men and women.

Synonyms

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Nearby

Origin

noun

From Middle English hen, from Old English henn (“hen”), from Proto-West Germanic *hannju, from Proto-Germanic *hanjō (“hen”), from Proto-Indo-European *kan-, *kana- (“to sing”). Cognate with Saterland Frisian Hanne (“hen”), West Frisian hin (“hen”), Dutch hen (“hen”), German Low German Heen (“hen”), German Henne (“hen”), Danish høne (“hen”), Swedish höna (“hen”), Icelandic hæna (“hen”). Related to Old English hana (“cock, rooster”). Also cognate to Latin cicōnia (“stork”), Latin canō (“to sing”), Russian каню́к (kanjúk, “buzzard”). Compare Russian пету́х (petúx, “rooster, cock”) from Russian петь (petʹ, “to sing”). Etymology 1, noun sense 7 after cock (“male chicken; man's penis”).