Hint

How to spell hint

4 letters · 1 syllable

How to pronounce hint

What does hint mean?

1. nounA slight or indirect suggestion that points toward something without stating it plainly.
2. verbTo suggest something indirectly rather than saying it openly.

Hint in a sentence

• noun

  She dropped a hint about wanting tickets for her birthday.

• verb

  The manager began to hint at upcoming changes during the meeting.

• noun

  The recipe needs just a hint of chilli to lift the flavour.

• verb

  Her tone seemed to hint that she already knew the answer.

Where does hint come from?

Language of origin: Germanic

The origins of hint are slightly murky, which is itself worth remembering. It surfaces in English around the early 1600s and is generally connected to the older verb hent, from Old English hentan, meaning 'to grasp, seize, or take hold of'. The idea of seizing on something passed naturally into the sense of catching at a clue or a small piece of suggested information. By Shakespeare's time the noun was being used for a slight indication or a quiet suggestion offered without stating it outright. Because the word is so short and phonetically transparent, it never collected the silent letters or doubled consonants that plague longer borrowings, which is why it stays easy to spell.

How the word is built

• hint (single Germanic root, no affixes)