hail

1. 1.

   precipitation of ice pellets when there are strong rising air currents

   Broaderprecipitation

   Partshailstone
2. 2.

   many objects thrown forcefully through the air

   “a hail of pebbles”

   “a hail of bullets”

   Broaderobject
3. 3.

   enthusiastic greeting

   Broadergreeting

Other forms of hail

plural

hails·

past tense

hailed·

present participle

hailing·

Forms marked · are formed by the regular rule rather than recorded in the source data. English keeps a few hundred irregulars and the rest follow the pattern, so the rule is right far more often than not — but it is a rule, and the mark says so.

Questions about hail

What does hail mean?

hail means "praise vociferously". That is the primary sense; the word has 8 in total, listed in full on this page.

How many syllables are in hail?

hail has 1 syllable: hail. In IPA it is /ˈheɪl/.

What is another word for hail?

Close synonyms include acclaim, herald, come, herald. Each sense on this page lists its own synonyms, because a word with several meanings rarely has one substitute that works for all of them.

Is hail a common word?

hail is banded "Common" — everyday vocabulary in speech and writing. The band comes from how often the word appears in a large corpus of everyday English, not from an editor's impression.

What rhymes with hail?

3 words rhyme with hail. Rhymes are matched on the phonemes from the last stressed vowel onward, which is the definition a reader has in their head.