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hello

[he-loh, huh-, hel-oh]

interjection

(used to express a greeting, answer a telephone, or attract attention.)

(an exclamation of surprise, wonder, elation, etc.)

(used derisively to question the comprehension, intelligence, or common sense of the person being addressed): You're gonna go out with him? Hello!

noun

the call “hello” (used as an expression of greeting): She gave me a warm hello.

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Hello is one of our favorite verbs.

So is subtilize. Does it mean:

to introduce subtleties into or argue subtly about.

to steal or take dishonestly (money, esp. public funds, or property entrusted to one's care); embezzle.

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verb (used without object)

to say “hello”; to cry or shout: I helloed, but no one answered.

verb (used with object)

to say “hello” to (someone): We helloed each other as though nothing had happened.

Also, especially British, hullo.

Origin:
1865–70; variant of hallo

Dictionary.com Unabridged
Based on the Random House Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2012.
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Link To hello

Example Sentences

Everywhere she goes residents shout hello or come up to ask for advice.

He made the mistake of dropping by one October afternoon to say hello.

She decided to stop in to say hello.

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Collins

World English Dictionary

hello, hallo or hullo (hɛˈləʊ, hə-, ˈhɛləʊ, hɛˈləʊ, hə-, ˈhɛləʊ, hɛˈləʊ, hə-, ˈhɛləʊ)

—*sentence substitute*
1.	an expression of greeting used on meeting a person or at the start of a telephone call
2.	a call used to attract attention
3.	an expression of surprise
4.	an expression used to indicate that the speaker thinks his or her listener is naive or slow to realize something: Hello? Have you been on Mars for the past two weeks or something?

—n , -los
5.	the act of saying or calling "hello"

[C19: see hallo]

hallo, hallo or hullo

—*sentence substitute*

—n

[C19: see hallo]

hullo, hallo or hullo

—*sentence substitute*

—n

[C19: see hallo]

Collins English Dictionary - Complete & Unabridged 10th Edition
2009 © William Collins Sons & Co. Ltd. 1979, 1986 © HarperCollins
Publishers 1998, 2000, 2003, 2005, 2006, 2007, 2009
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Etymonline

Word Origin & History

hello

1883, alt. of hallo (1840), itself an alt. of holla, hollo, a shout to attract attention, first recorded 1588. Perhaps from holla! "stop, cease." Popularity as a greeting coincides with use of the telephone, where it won out over Alexander Graham Bell's suggestion, ahoy. Central telephone exchange operators

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were known as hello-girls (1889).

"Hello, formerly an Americanism, is now nearly as common as hullo in Britain (Say who you are; do not just say 'hello' is the warning given in our telephone directories) and the Englishman cannot be expected to give up the right to say hello if he likes it better than his native hullo. [H.W. Fowler, "A Dictionary of Modern English Usage," 1926]

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Matching Quote

"I'll come up the steps to the house and the gardener will be clipping away at the hedges and he'll say, "Good evening, Mr. Younger." And I'll say, "Hello, Jefferson, how are you this evening?" And I'll go inside and Ruth will come downstairs and meet me at the door and we'll kiss each other and she'll take my arm and we'll go up to your room to see you sitting on the floor with the catalogues of all the great schools in America around you.... All the great schools in the world! And—and I'll say, all right son—it's your seventeenth birthday, what is it you've decided?... Just tell me, what it is you want to be—and you'll be it.... Whatever you want to be—Yessir! You just name it, so ... and I hand you the world!"

-Lorraine Hansberry

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hello

hel·lo

hello definition