hello

- 5 dictionary results

hel⋅lo

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

interjection, noun, plural -los, verb, -loed, -lo⋅ing.

–interjection

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

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

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

–noun

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

–verb (used without object)

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

–verb (used with object)

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

Also, especially British, hullo.

Origin:
1865–70; var. of hallo

Dictionary.com Unabridged
Based on the Random House Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2009.
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Link To hello

hel·lo (hě-lō', hə-)

interj.  Used to greet someone, answer the telephone, or express surprise.
n.   pl. hel·los
A calling or greeting of "hello."
intr.v.   hel·loed, hel·lo·ing, hel·loes
To call "hello."

[Alteration of hallo, alteration of obsolete holla, stop!, perhaps from Old French hola : ho, ho! + la, there (from Latin illāc, that way).]

The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fourth Edition
Copyright © 2009 by Houghton Mifflin Company.
Published by Houghton Mifflin Company. All rights reserved.
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Hello

Hel*lo"\, interj. & n. See Halloo.

Webster's Revised Unabridged Dictionary, © 1996, 1998 MICRA, Inc.
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Language Translation for : hello

Spanish: hola; vaya, anda,

German: Hallo!,

Japanese: やあ

More Translations »

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 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]

hello
hello, world

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