Word.ws English Dictionary

Harold

/ˈhæɹəld/US/ˈhæɹəld/

Harold proper noun: a male given name from Old English or Old Norse.

Proper noun (1)

Harold (plural Harolds)

  1. A male given name from Old English or Old Norse.
    • For I have heard the Steers / Had land in Saxon times; and your own name / Of Harold sounds so English and so old / I am sure you must be proud of it.1882, Alfred Tennyson, The Promise of May
    • She called her husband Hal because no one else had ever done so and it had a dashing ring, rather out of keeping with Harold's appearance.1984, Ruth Rendell, The Killing Doll, Pantheon Books, →ISBN, page 42

Proper noun (2)

Harold

  1. A particular format of improvised theatre, in which characters and themes are introduced and then recur in a series of connected scenes.

Noun capitalized: HAROLD

HAROLD (uncountable)

  1. (abbreviation, acronym) Acronym of hemispheric asymmetry reduction in older adults.

Harold meaning in Bengali

Harold in Bengali

male given name
হ্যারল্ড haerôlḍ

Forms of Harold

pluralHarolds

Origin of Harold

From a merger of Old English Hereweald and Old English Harold (itself from Old Norse Haraldr), both from Proto-Germanic *Harjawaldaz, from *harjaz (“army”) + *waldaz (“ruler, authority”). Related to Walter, which has the elements reversed. Cognate with Danish, Norwegian Nynorsk, and Swedish Harald, Faroese and Icelandic Haraldur.

First performed by The Committee, a San Francisco improv group, in 1967. The name is said to have been jokingly suggested by one of the audience.

Modelled on the name Harold.

Words formed from Harold

Phrases with Harold

Questions about Harold

What does Harold mean?
Harold means a male given name from Old English or Old Norse.
What is Harold in Bengali?
Harold in Bengali is হ্যারল্ড (haerôlḍ). See Harold meaning in Bengali.
What part of speech is Harold?
Harold can be a proper noun or a noun.
How do you pronounce Harold?
Harold is pronounced /ˈhæɹəld/ (UK).

Words near Harold in the dictionary

  1. harnt
  2. harnts
  3. haro
  4. Haroian
  5. Haroians
  6. Harold
  7. Harold Holt
  8. Harold Holted
  9. Harold Holting
  10. Harold Holts
  11. Harold Wood

Source and license

Adapted from Wiktionary: Harold (page history and authors); HAROLD (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.

Last updated:

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

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