Hinge
nounA jointed or flexible device on which a door, lid, or gate turns as it opens and closes.
How to spell hinge
5 letters · 1 syllable
How to pronounce hinge
What does hinge mean?
- nounA jointed or flexible device on which a door, lid, or gate turns as it opens and closes.
- verbTo depend on something completely, as if turning on it.
Hinge in a sentence
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noun
The cupboard door squeaked because the hinge needed oiling.
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verb
The whole deal will hinge on the final inspection report.
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noun
He replaced the rusted hinge on the garden gate.
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verb
Her promotion may hinge on this one presentation.
Where does hinge come from?
Language of origin: Germanic
Hinge comes from Middle English 'henge' or 'hinge', a noun that grew directly out of the same Germanic root as the verb 'hang', since a hinge is literally the thing on which a door 'hangs'. The earliest records appear around the 1300s, and the spelling wandered through forms like 'heeng' and 'henge' before settling. Its close cousins survive in Dutch 'heng' and in the related German 'hängen', all pointing back to an old Germanic sense of swinging or being suspended. Over time the figurative use developed, so that one idea or outcome could 'hinge' on another, turning on it just as a gate turns on its pivot. The tricky spelling is the soft 'g', which sounds like a 'j' yet is written 'ge', so the word ends in 'nge' rather than the phonetic 'nj'.
How the word is built
- hinge (single root, from Middle English heng-, related to the verb 'hang'; no prefix or suffix)
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