hinge

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hinge^¹

/ˈhɪnd͡ʒ/
[ˈhɪnd͡ʒ]

Rhymes with -ɪndʒ

Where it comes from

From Middle English henge (“hinge”), from Old English *henġ or *henġe (“hinge”), from Proto-West Germanic *hangiju or *hangī; compare Old English *henġe- in henġeclif (“overhanging cliff”), Old English henġen (“hanging; that upon which a thing is hung”). Akin to Scots heenge (“hinge”), Saterland Frisian Hänge (“hinge”), Low German henge (“hook, hinge, handle”), Dutch heng (“moving leaf of a hinge”), Dutch geheng (“hinge”), Middle Dutch henghe, hanghe (“hook, hinge, handle”), Scots hingel (“any attachment by which something is hung or fastened”), Dutch hengel (“hook”), hengsel (“handle”), dialectal German Hängel (“hook, joint”), Henkel (“handle, hook”), Danish hængsel (“hinge”), Faroese hongsl (“hinge”), Icelandic hengsli (“hinge”), Norwegian hengsel (“hinge”), Swedish hängsle (“suspender”), Old English hōn (“to hang”), Old English hangian (“to cause to hang, hang up”). More at hang.

noun hinges

A jointed or flexible device that allows the pivoting of a door etc. The massy portals of the churches swung creaking on their hinges; and some lay dead on the pavement.
Similar: har
A naturally occurring joint resembling such hardware in form or action, as in the shell of a bivalve. The pedicel of the pollinium is articulated as before by a hinge to the disc; it can move freely only in one direction owing to one end of the disc being upturned.
A stamp hinge, a folded and gummed paper rectangle for affixing postage stamps in an album.
A principle, or a point in time, on which subsequent reasonings or events depend. This argument was the hinge on which the question turned.
The median of the upper or lower half of a batch, sample, or probability distribution.
One of the four cardinal points, east, west, north, or south. If when the Moon is in the Hinge at East, / The Birth breaks forward from its native rest; / Full Eighty Years, if you two Years abate, / This Station gives, and long defers its Fate
A movement that presents itself as rotation when an off-centre fixed point is taken into account.
In polyamory, a person connected emotionally or sexually to two others who are not connected to each other.
Similar: swing
dialectal To be in poor health; to be out of sorts.

Similar: quartile

verb hinges · hinging · hingeing · hinged

transitive To attach by, or equip with a hinge.
intransitive To depend on something. Games can hinge on the sort of controversial decision made by Taylor in the 10th minute. After Rivière collected Gabriel Obertan’s pass and sashayed beyond Daley Blind he drew the United centre-half into a rash, clumsy challenge but, puzzlingly, Taylor detected no penalty.
transitive The breaking off of the distal end of a knapped stone flake whose presumed course across the face of the stone core was truncated prematurely, leaving not a feathered distal end but instead the scar of a nearly perpendicular break. The flake hinged at an inclusion in the core.
obsolete To bend. Be thou a Flatterer now, and ſeeke to thriue / By that which ha's^([sic – meaning has]) vndone thee; hindge thy knee, / And let his very breath whom thou'lt obſerue / Blow off thy Cap: [...]
To move or already be positioned in such a fashion that it presents itself as rotation when an off-centre fixed point is taken into account.
Similar: swing

Hinge^²

Rhymes with -ɪndʒ

proper noun Hinges

A surname.

Thesaurus

Closest in meaning: flexible joint, key, clevis, linchpin, pivot, swivel, bridge, juncture, crossroads, landmark, seam, watershed, rotate, swing, pivotal, turning

noun

Similar: quartile

Translations

Every language

noun device for the pivoting of a door

Español	bisagra, gozne, charnela, quicio
한국어	경첩 gyeongcheop
日本語	蝶番 chōtsugai, 丁番 chōtsugai
中文	鉸鏈 /铰链 jiǎoliàn, 折頁 /折页 zhéyè, 合頁 /合页 héyè, 活頁 /活页 huóyè, 合葉 /合叶 héyè
हिन्दी	चूल cūl, कुलाबा kulābā, द्वारसन्धि dvārsandhi
Kiswahili	bawaba
Português	dobradiça, gonzo
Français	gond, charnière
Deutsch	Angel, Scharnier, Türband, Türangel
Italiano	cerniera, cardine
Ελληνικά	μεντεσές mentesés
Română	balama, șarnieră, țâțână
Русский	пе́тля pétlja, петля́ petljá, шарни́р šarnír
Tiếng Việt	bản lề
العربية	مِقْبَض miqbaḍ
עברית	ציר tsir

verb to attach by a hinge

Español	abisagrar, enquiciar, engoznar
Português	pôr dobradiças em, colocar dobradiças em

verb to depend on something

Español	depender de, girar sobre, girar en torno a, abisagrarse
Português	depender de
Français	dépendre de, reposer sur
Deutsch	abhängen von

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MLA

"hinge." Wiktionary, via Micwyn, micwyn.com/word/hinge. Accessed 5 Nov. 2026.

APA

hinge. (n.d.). In Wiktionary, via Micwyn. Retrieved November 5, 2026, from https://micwyn.com/word/hinge

Chicago

"hinge." Wiktionary, via Micwyn. Accessed November 5, 2026. https://micwyn.com/word/hinge.

BibTeX

@misc{hinge_2026,
  title = {hinge},
  howpublished = {Wiktionary, via Micwyn},
  year = {2026},
  url = {https://micwyn.com/word/hinge},
  urldate = {2026-11-05}
}