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hale

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hale¹

  • /heɪl/

Sounds like hail · Rhymes with -eɪl

Where it comes from

From Northern Middle English hal, hale, variants of hole (“healthy; safe; whole”, whence whole), from Old English hāl, from Proto-West Germanic *hail, from Proto-Germanic *hailaz (“whole; entire; healthy”). See whole for more.

adjective haler · halest

  1. dated Sound, entire, healthy; robust, not impaired. His stomach too begins to fail: / Last year we thought him strong and hale; / But now he's quite another thing: / I wish he may hold out till spring!

    Opposite: unhale

hale²

  • /heɪl/

Sounds like hail · Rhymes with -eɪl

Where it comes from

From Middle English hale, an alteration of hele (“health”) after Etymology 1. Cognate with Scots hale (“health”), German Heil (“salvation, well-being”).

noun

  1. archaic, uncountable Health, welfare. Then let them vale a bonet of their proud ſayle, / And of their taunting toies reſt with il hayle.

hale³

  • /heɪl/

Sounds like hail · Rhymes with -eɪl

Where it comes from

From Middle English halen, from Anglo-Norman haler, from Old Dutch *halon (compare Dutch halen), from Proto-Germanic *halōną (compare Old English ġeholian, West Frisian helje, German holen), from Proto-Indo-European *kelH- (“to lift”) (compare Latin ex-cellō (“to surpass”), Tocharian B käly- (“to stand, stay”), Albanian qell (“to halt, hold up, carry”), Lithuanian kélti (“to raise up”), Ancient Greek κελέων (keléōn, “upright beam on a loom”)). Doublet of haul.

verb hales · haling · haled

  1. transitive To drag or pull, especially forcibly. For I had beene vilely hurried and haled by those poore men, which had taken the paines to carry me upon their armes a long and wearysome way, and to say truth, they had all beene wearied twice or thrice over, and were faine to shift severall times.

Hale⁴

  • /heɪl/

Sounds like hail, hale · Rhymes with -eɪl

Where it comes from

* As an English surname, Old English dative form of halh (“hollow, nook”).

* Also as an English surname, from Old English hæle (“hero”). Compare Hain.

* As an Irish surname, from mac céile; see McHale.

* As a Jewish surname, variant of Halle.

proper noun

  1. A topographic surname from Old English.
  2. A village and civil parish in Halton borough, Cheshire (OS grid ref SJ4682).
  3. A hamlet in Beetham parish, Westmorland and Furness, Cumbria, previously in South Lakeland district (OS grid ref SD5078).
  4. A village in the Metropolitan Borough of Trafford, Greater Manchester (OS grid ref SJ7786).
  5. A small village and civil parish in New Forest district, Hampshire (OS grid ref SU1818).
  6. A hamlet south of Gillingham, Medway borough, Kent (OS grid ref TQ7765).
  7. A hamlet in Cucklington parish, Somerset, previously in South Somerset district (OS grid ref ST7527).
  8. A suburban village in the north of Farnham parish, Waverley district, Surrey (OS grid ref SU8448).
  9. An unincorporated community in Yuma County, Colorado.
  10. An unincorporated community in Jones County, Iowa.
  11. An unincorporated community in Salt Creek Township, Chautauqua County, Kansas.
  12. An unincorporated community in Plainfield Township, Iosco County, Michigan.
  13. A neighbourhood in southern Minneapolis, Minnesota.
  14. A minor city in Carroll County, Missouri.
  15. A ghost town in Carbon County, Utah.
  16. A town and unincorporated community therein, in Trempealeau County, Wisconsin.
  17. A locality on the Algoma Central Railway, Algoma District, Ontario, Canada.
  18. A town in Korogwe District, eastern Tanzania.
  19. A locality in the south of the Northern Territory, Australia, named after the Hale River.

HALE⁵

Where it comes from

Abbreviation

adjective

  1. abbreviation, acronym, not comparable Acronym of high-altitude long-endurance

Thesaurus

Closest in meaning: healthy, whole, sound, well, robust, hall, nathan, broadway, hail, hill, hil, hull, halle, valenciennes, hal, benson

Translations

Every language

adj sound, entire, healthy, robust, not impaired

Françaisbonne santé, sain, pleine forme
Русскийкре́пкий krépkij, здоро́вый zdoróvyj

verb to drag or pull, especially forcibly

Françaishaler

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Cite this
MLA

"hale." Wiktionary, via Micwyn, micwyn.com/word/hale. Accessed 6 Nov. 2026.

APA

hale. (n.d.). In Wiktionary, via Micwyn. Retrieved November 6, 2026, from https://micwyn.com/word/hale

Chicago

"hale." Wiktionary, via Micwyn. Accessed November 6, 2026. https://micwyn.com/word/hale.

BibTeX
@misc{hale_2026,
  title = {hale},
  howpublished = {Wiktionary, via Micwyn},
  year = {2026},
  url = {https://micwyn.com/word/hale},
  urldate = {2026-11-06}
}