Have you ever hungered after a huge vocabulary? If you can hardly hold your own when you play Scrabble or Words with Friends, consider humbling housemates with the letter H. Honestly, H-words harmonize well in a hundred different headlines. H is the 8th letter of the English alphabet, but it heralds some highflying words! So, if you’d say “hallelujah” to a hardier vocabulary, begin by harvesting a few handy words that start with the letter H.
We’ve created this list of words for you, organized by the number of letters in each word. Many of these words have more than one meaning. For simplicity, we’ve only listed one definition for each word. Keep in mind, this word list doesn’t contain every single English word that starts with H; however, it’s a useful introduction to this very special letter.
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habituation – Noun | The state of becoming accustomed to something
hagiography – Noun | Biography of saints
hairdresser – Noun | A barber
harpsichord – Noun | A stringed keyboard instrument
10-Letter Words
hacktivist – Noun | A social or political activist who engages in computer hacking
hallelujah – Interjection | An expression of praise
hectometer – Noun | A 100 meter unit of measurement
hibernacle – Noun | A shelter for winter hibernation
9-Letter Words
hairbrush – Noun | A tool for grooming hair
handwoven – Adjective | Produced by a hand loom
hopefully – Adverb | In an optimistic or desirous manner
hyperbole – Noun | Purposeful exaggeration
8-Letter Words
hacienda – Noun | A large, Spanish-style estate
hairline – Noun | A tiny line or crack
halitous – Adjective | Pertaining to a mist
hygienic – Adjective | Clean
7-Letter Words
hachure – Noun | Short lines used in map-making to represent a slope
hackney – Noun | A carriage or riding horse
hacksaw – Noun | A fine-toothed blade in a frame used for cutting hard materials
haddock – Noun | A northern Atlantic fish of the cod family
haircut – Noun | The process of trimming or shaping hair
halcyon – Adjective | Golden or idyllic
halibut – Noun | Any of several Atlantic flatfishes
hammock – Noun | A hanging fabric bed with cords supporting each end
hamster – Noun | A burrowing rodent with large cheek pouches
heinous – Adjective | Abominable
hexagon – Noun | A six-sided polygon
humdrum – Adjective | Monotonous
6-Letter Words
habile – Adjective | Skillful and able
hackee – Noun | A chickaree
hackle – Verb | To comb or dress flax, hemp, or jute
haggle – Verb | To bargain
heifer – Noun | A young cow
homily – Noun | A short sermon
5-Letter Words
hammy – Adjective | Exaggerated theatricality
hamza – Noun | An Arabic glottal stop, represented by an apostrophe in English transliteration
homey – Adjective | Home-like, unaffected
hovel – Noun | A small shelter
howdy – Interjection | An expression of greeting
4-Letter Words
haft – Noun | A handle for a weapon
hame – Noun | A support attached to a workhorse’s collar
hark – Verb | To listen
hilt – Noun | A handle for a weapon
hoax – Verb | An act of trickery or deception
hock – Noun | To pawn
hoot – Verb | To make an owl’s cry
hurl – Verb | To vomit
3-Letter Words
hae – Verb | To have (Scottish English)
hah – Interjection | An expression of triumph (also spelled ha)
hap – Noun | A chance event
hep – Adjective | Aware of something
hod – Noun | A container for carrying a construction loads
2-Letter Words
he – Pronoun | That male person
hi – Interjection | Greeting
hm – Interjection | An expression of contemplation (also spelled hmm or hmmm)
ho – Interjection | An expression to attract attention.
By looking at this list, you may be able to identify some common prefixes. Words that start with “hyper” deal with an excess or overage. Words beginning with “hetero” describe something different or dissimilar. Understanding these linguistic patterns can help you to intuit what a word means, even when you don’t have a dictionary at hand.
Use words that start with the letter H to heighten your handiwork with homophones. Hook a reader with heartfelt haikus. Help people via healthy how-to handbooks. Hype holy figures by writing hallowed hagiographies. After handling this list of hyper-useful words, no word finder, word game, or crossword puzzle will haunt you with its hardest hints. From ho to heliocentricity, a handful of H-words may inspire you—henceforth— to harangue and hyperbolize with good humor.
I’m an award-winning playwright with a penchant for wordplay. After earning a perfect score on the Writing SAT, I worked my way through Brown University by moonlighting as a Kaplan Test Prep tutor. I received a BA with honors in Literary Arts (Playwriting)—which gave me the opportunity to study under Pulitzer Prize-winner Paula Vogel. In my previous roles as new media producer with Rosetta Stone, director of marketing for global ventures with The Juilliard School, and vice president of digital strategy with Up & Coming Media, I helped develop the voice for international brands. From my home office in Maui, Hawaii, I currently work on freelance and ghostwriting projects.
