Half
nounOne of two equal parts into which something is or can be divided.
How to spell half
4 letters · 1 syllable
How to pronounce half
What does half mean?
- nounOne of two equal parts into which something is or can be divided.
- adverbTo the extent of one of two equal parts; partly or not fully.
Half in a sentence
-
noun
She cut the apple in half and shared it.
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adverb
He was still half asleep when the alarm rang again.
-
noun
The team scored twice in the second half of the match.
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adverb
The glass was only half full by the end of dinner.
Where does half come from?
Language of origin: Germanic
Half comes from the Old English healf, which described one of two equal parts but originally carried the sense of a 'side', as in the side of a body or a piece split in two. It belongs to a wide Germanic family, with close cousins in the Dutch half and the German halb, all tracing back to a shared root meaning 'something divided'. The early sense of 'side' survives faintly in expressions about taking someone's part or being on a particular side. The spelling trap is the silent L, which is no longer sounded in modern speech yet was once pronounced and has clung on in writing for centuries. That same hidden L turns up in the related word halve, where it suddenly becomes audible again, a useful clue for remembering it is there.
How the word is built
- half (whole word, no affixes; from Old English healf, originally meaning 'side')
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