Hoops

How to spell hoops

5 letters · 1 syllable

How to pronounce hoops

What does hoops mean?

1. nounCircular bands or rings, used as objects, fastenings, or decoration.
2. nounDifficult or tedious requirements that must be met, often in the phrase jumping through hoops.

Hoops in a sentence

• The cooper fitted three iron hoops around the wooden barrel.

• The bank made us jump through endless hoops to approve the mortgage.

• She wore large gold hoops in her ears to the party.

• Applicants face countless administrative hoops before the visa is granted.

Where does hoops come from?

Language of origin: Germanic

The singular hoop descends from the Old English hop, meaning a band or ring of metal or wood, and it has close cousins in Dutch hoep and other Germanic languages, all pointing back to a shared Germanic root for a circular band. For centuries a hoop was a practical object: the iron band that held the staves of a barrel together, the rigid ring that gave shape to a wide skirt, or the wooden circle children rolled along the street with a stick. The plural hoops simply adds the regular -s ending, and its spelling is delightfully straightforward, with the double o spelling the long 'oo' sound. In modern informal use, especially in North America, hoops became shorthand for the game of basketball, named after the netted ring fixed to the backboard. The figurative phrase about jumping through hoops, drawn from circus animals leaping through raised rings, gives the word its sense of pointless or demanding procedures.

How the word is built

• hoop (a circular band or ring)
• -s (plural)