hairy

adjective

Simple meaning

Having a lot of fur.

Pronunciation

Say it like this:

hehree

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US device voice

IPA pronunciation (US)

ˈhɛɹi

This word is pronounced essentially the same in American and British English, so one transcription covers both.

IPA (International Phonetic Alphabet) is a standard way of writing speech sounds.

Word Review

Definition

Everyday modern meanings first, grouped by part of speech.

adjective

of a person
Having a lot of body hair.
of an animal
Having a lot of fur.
of a human body part other than the head
Having hair growing from it.
Having or covered with hair
informal
Causing anxiety or fright; terrifying, scary.
informal
Difficult, complex, intricate, or intimidating.

Word at a Glance

Difficulty: A2 · Elementary (estimated)
Frequency: Common
Typical Use: Everyday English

Word Aura™

How this word commonly comes across.

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More ways to use hairy

“Jacob was a hairy man.”adjective

Common Patterns and Combinations

How this word naturally appears with others.

hairy cellhairy roothairy woodpeckerhairy vetchhairy chesthairy apehairy legsslightly hairy

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Similar Words, What’s the Difference?

Close in meaning, but not always interchangeable.

hirsute
Having or covered with hair.
downy
Having down, covered with a soft fuzzy coating as of small feathers or hair.
sericeous
Having a silky lustre, usually due to fine, close hairs.
hoary
Covered with short, dense, greyish white hairs.
woolly
Having a thick, soft texture, as if made of wool.

Word Family

Related forms, grouped by how they connect.

Word family

Words built from the same root.

hairlessadjectiveDerived adjective
Having no hair or fur.

Compound terms

Established multiword terms.

hairy darling peanounCompound term
Shrubby perennial of southern Australia having downy or woolly stems and undersides of leaves and racemes of red to pink flowers.
hairy finger grassnounCompound term
A European forage grass grown for hay.
hairy golden asternounCompound term
Hairy perennial with yellow flower heads in branched clusters.
hairy honeysucklenounCompound term
Twining deciduous shrub with hairy leaves and spikes of yellow-orange flowers.
hairy-legged vampire batnounCompound term
Similar in size and habits to Desmodus rotundus.
hairy lip fernnounCompound term
Small North American evergreen fern whose stipes and lower frond surfaces are densely wooly.

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Dictionary data from Wiktionary via the Free Dictionary API. Simple meanings, combinations and word intelligence are built from verified reference data, no AI is used to load this page.