Hare

How to spell hare

4 letters · 1 syllable

How to pronounce hare

What does hare mean?

1. nounA fast-running mammal similar to a rabbit but larger, with longer ears and powerful hind legs.
2. verbTo run very fast, usually away from somewhere.

Hare in a sentence

• noun

  A brown hare bolted across the open field.

• verb

  The children would hare off home the moment the bell rang.

• noun

  The farmer spotted a hare crouched low among the furrows.

• verb

  He had to hare down the platform to catch the last train.

Where does hare come from?

Language of origin: Germanic

Hare comes straight from the Old English hara, the name for the long-eared, fast-running mammal that resembles a large rabbit. The word traces back through the older Germanic forms to a Proto-Indo-European root that is thought to have referred to greyness, the dull grey-brown colour of the animal's coat, which links it distantly to words for grey in related languages. It has stayed remarkably stable for well over a thousand years, keeping its short, simple spelling while many longer words drifted. The verb meaning 'to run very fast', as in to hare off down the road, grew naturally from the animal's famous speed and is a much later, informal extension. The spelling trap is purely that it sounds identical to 'hair', so the silent final -e and the absence of an extra 'i' are what mark it out.

How the word is built

• hare (single Old English root: hara, the animal)

Words that sound like hare

They sound the same but mean different things, so the meaning decides which spelling to write.

• hair: The fine thread-like strands that grow from the skin, especially on the head.