hug

1. 1.

   a tight or amorous embrace

   “come here and give me a big hug”

   Synonymsclinchsqueeze

   Broaderembrace

Other forms of hug

plural

hugs·

past tense or participle

hugged

present participle

hugging

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 hug

What does hug mean?

hug means "hold (someone) tightly in your arms, usually with fondness". That is the primary sense; the word has 3 in total, listed in full on this page.

How many syllables are in hug?

hug has 1 syllable: hug. In IPA it is /ˈhʌɡ/.

What is another word for hug?

Close synonyms include embrace, bosom, squeeze, clinch, squeeze. 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 hug a common word?

hug 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.