haven
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haven¹
- /ˈheɪvən/
Rhymes with -eɪvən
Where it comes from
From Middle English haven, havene, from Old English hæfen (“haven; harbour; port”), either from Proto-West Germanic *habanu or Old Norse hǫfn, from Proto-Germanic *habnō, *habanō (compare Dutch haven, German Hafen, Norwegian/Danish havn, Swedish hamn, French havre), from Proto-Germanic *habą (“sea”) (compare Old English hæf, Middle Low German haf, Old Norse haf (“sea”), German Haff (“bay or lagoon behind a spit”), perhaps, in the sense of "heaving sea", etymologically identical with Old Norse haf (“heaving, lifting, uplift, elevation”), derived from Proto-Germanic *habjaną (“to lift, heave”)), or from Proto-Indo-European *kh₂pnós (compare Old Irish cúan (“harbor, recess, haven”)). Doublet of abra.
noun havens
- A harbour or anchorage protected from the sea. And the stately ships go on / To their haven under the hill;
- A safe place. Since its conception, the European Union has been a haven for those seeking refuge from war, persecution and poverty in other parts of the world.
- A peaceful or tranquil place.
- A certain type of function on sets of vertices in an undirected graph, able to be used by an evader to win a pursuit-evasion game on the graph.
verb havens · havening · havened
- To put into, or provide with a haven.
haven²
Where it comes from
From Middle English haven; equivalent to have + -en (plural simple present ending).
verb
- plural simple present of have And they that occupye them bene in moche ſauegarde, and hauen greate conſolacyon, and bene the readyer vnto all goodnes, the ſlower to all euyll, and yf they haue done any thing amyſe, anone euen by the ſyght of the bookes theyꝛ conſciences bene admoniſhed, and they waxen ſoꝛy ⁊ aſhamed of the facte
Haven³
proper noun
- A surname.
- A unisex given name of modern usage.
- A city in Reno County, Kansas.
- A township in Sherburne County, Minnesota, named after John Ormsbee Haven.
- A hamlet in Sullivan County, New York.
- A ghost town in Grant County, Washington.
- An unincorporated community in the town of Mosel, Sheboygan County, Wisconsin.
- A town in the Rural City of Horsham, Victoria, Australia.
Thesaurus
Closest in meaning: harbor, harbour, seaport, oasis, port, redoubt, stronghold, sea, lair, place, hut, refugium, shelter, resort, refuge, asylum
Translations
Every language
noun harbour
| Español | puerto |
|---|---|
| 한국어 | 항구 hanggu, 해항 haehang |
| 日本語 | 港 minato, 海港 kaikō |
| 中文 | 避風港 /避风港 bìfēnggǎng, 海港 hǎigǎng |
| Português | porto |
| Français | port, havre |
| Deutsch | Hafen |
| Italiano | porto |
| Ελληνικά | λιμάνι limáni |
| Русский | га́вань gávanʹ, порт port |
| العربية | مِينَاء mīnāʔ, مَرْفَأ marfaʔ |
| עברית | נמל namél |
noun refuge
| Español | asilo, refugio |
|---|---|
| 한국어 | 피난처 pinancheo |
| 日本語 | 避難所 hinanjo |
| 中文 | 避難所 /避难所 bìnànsuǒ |
| Português | refúgio |
| Français | asile, refuge, abri, havre |
| Deutsch | Zufluchtsort, Rückzugsort |
| Ελληνικά | καταφύγιο katafýgio |
| Русский | убе́жище ubéžišče, укры́тие ukrýtije, прибе́жище pribéžišče, приста́нище pristánišče, прию́т prijút |
| العربية | مَلَاذ malāḏ, مَلْجَأ maljaʔ |
noun a peaceful place
| Português | santuário |
|---|---|
| Français | havre, havre de paix |
Talk about this word "haven." Wiktionary, via Micwyn, micwyn.com/word/haven. Accessed 6 Nov. 2026. haven. (n.d.). In Wiktionary, via Micwyn. Retrieved November 6, 2026, from https://micwyn.com/word/haven "haven." Wiktionary, via Micwyn. Accessed November 6, 2026. https://micwyn.com/word/haven.Cite this
@misc{haven_2026,
title = {haven},
howpublished = {Wiktionary, via Micwyn},
year = {2026},
url = {https://micwyn.com/word/haven},
urldate = {2026-11-06}
}
