Hind

How to spell hind

4 letters · 1 syllable

How to pronounce hind

What does hind mean?

1. adjectiveSituated at the back; relating to the rear part of an animal or thing.
2. nounA female deer, especially a female red deer.

Hind in a sentence

• adjective

  The dog balanced on its hind legs to reach the treat.

• noun

  A nervous hind led her fawn across the clearing.

• adjective

  The horse kicked out with a sudden hind leg.

• noun

  The gamekeeper watched a single hind move away from the stags.

Where does hind come from?

Language of origin: Germanic

This word actually covers two unrelated origins that happen to share a spelling. The adjective meaning 'at the back' comes from Old English hindan, meaning 'from behind', and is closely related to 'behind' and 'hinder'; the original sense pictured the rear side of something, and by the medieval period it was attached to animals' rear limbs, giving us the familiar 'hind legs'. The noun meaning a female deer is a separate native word, Old English hind, related to similar words across the Germanic languages such as Dutch hinde and German Hinde, all naming the female of the red deer. Because both came down through everyday Anglo-Saxon speech rather than scholarly borrowing, the spelling stayed short and plain. The trap is mainly that 'hind' looks like it should rhyme with 'find' yet has a short vowel, and that it is easily confused in writing with 'hint' or 'hide'.

How the word is built

• hind (Old English hindan: from behind, rear)