Word.ws English Dictionary

hance

/hɑːns/

hance verb: to raise, to elevate.

Verb

hance (third-person singular simple present hances, present participle hancing, simple past and past participle hanced)

  1. (obsolete, transitive) To raise, to elevate.

Noun

hance (plural hances)

  1. A curve or arc, especially in architecture or in the design of a ship.
    • He wears a minimal white cotton brief, and is pleased by the hance of its pouch, a catenary dip as he faces the mirror, the profile navicular and ostent.1974, Guy Davenport, Tatlin!
  2. The arc of smaller radius at the springing of an elliptical or many-centred arch.

Proper noun capitalized: Hance

Hance

  1. A surname originating as a patronymic.

Forms of hance

Verb
third-person singular presenthances
present participlehancing
past participlehanced
pasthanced
Noun
pluralhances
alternative formhanch
alternative formhaunch

Origin of hance

See enhance.

Anglo-Norman, from Old French haulce.

From Hann + the patronymic suffix -s. In Scotland, a contraction of Angus.

Words that rhyme with hance

3 more rhymesFewer rhymes

Questions about hance

What does hance mean?
Hance means to raise, to elevate.
What part of speech is hance?
Hance can be a verb, a noun or a proper noun.
How do you pronounce hance?
Hance is pronounced /hɑːns/.
What is the past tense of hance?
The past tense of hance is hanced.

Words near hance in the dictionary

  1. Hanbury Brown-Twiss effects
  2. Hanbury-Brown-Twiss effect
  3. Hanburys
  4. Hanby
  5. Hanbys
  6. hance
  7. hanced
  8. Hancer
  9. Hancers
  10. hances
  11. Hancey

Source and license

Adapted from Wiktionary: hance (page history and authors); Hance (page history and authors). Text available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 license. Word.ws reformatted the entry and added links. Wiktionary data of 2026-09-02.

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Pronunciation audio from Wikimedia Commons, each file under its own free license: LL-Q1860 (eng)-Vealhurl-hance.wav.

Cite this entry: “hance.” Word.ws, https://word.ws/hance. Based on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.