Word.ws English Dictionary

hele

/hiːl/

hele is the obsolete form of heal.

Verb

hele (third-person singular simple present heles, present participle heling, simple past and past participle heled)

  1. (archaic, dialectal, rare) To hide, conceal, and keep secret, especially for a secret society (such as the masons).
    • … the lion is in most gentleness and nobility, when his neck and shoulders be heled with hair and main.1893, Robert Steele, Mediaeval Lore from Bartholomew Anglicus, Online edition, Gutenberg Project, published 2004
    • Men could look up and understand something of the star-Spangled arch of blue, but the reversed arch or crypt beneath was to the eyes a flesh 'heled, concealed, and never revealed,' […]1921, The Builder: A Journal for the Masonic Student, page 208
  2. (especially, rare) To cover or conceal (a seedling, plant, roots, etc).
    • At the time of earthing the potatoes by the double mould-plough, turnip seed is sown, and thus "heled;" the turnips arrive at maturity before the potatoes, and are pulled without damage to them.1861, The Journal of the Royal Agricultural Society of England, page 275
    • […] and for this reason had better be taken up and heled in, in a safe place, where there is no danger from standing water.1881, Report of the New Hampshire Deptartment of Agriculture, page 252

Meaning of heal

Verb

heal (third-person singular simple present heals, present participle healing, simple past and past participle healed)

  1. (transitive) To make better from a disease, wound, etc.; to revive or cure.
    • This bandage will help to heal your cut.
  2. (intransitive) To become better or healthy again.
    • Bandages allow cuts to heal.
    Synonyms:
    get better, recover, mend
  3. (figuratively, transitive) To reconcile, as a breach or difference; to make whole; to free from guilt.
    • to heal dissensions

See all 7 meanings of heal

Proper noun capitalized: Hele

Hele

  1. A hamlet in Bude-Stratton parish, Cornwall (OS grid ref SS2104).
  2. A small village in Bradninch parish, Mid Devon district, Devon (OS grid ref SS9902)
  3. A small village in Ilfracombe parish, North Devon district, Devon (OS grid ref SS5347)
  4. A hamlet in Ashburton parish, Teignbridge district, Devon (SX7470).
  5. A suburb of Torquay, Torbay borough, Devon (OS grid ref SX9065).
  6. A hamlet in St Giles on the Heath parish, Torridge district, Devon, on the border with Cornwall (OS grid ref SX3391).
  7. A hamlet in Bradford-on-Tone parish, Somerset, previously in Somerset West and Taunton district (OS grid ref ST1824).

Noun capitalized: HELE

HELE (uncountable)

  1. (Philippines, abbreviation, initialism) Initialism of home economics and livelihood education.

Forms of hele

third-person singular presentheles
present participleheling
past participleheled
pastheled
alternative formheal
alternative formheel

Origin of hele

From Middle English helen, helien, from Old English helan (“to conceal, cover, hide”, strong verb) and helian (“to conceal, cover, hide”, weak verb), from Proto-West Germanic *helan, from Proto-Germanic *helaną (“to conceal, stash, receive stolen goods”) and Proto-Germanic *haljaną (“to hull, conceal”); both from Proto-Indo-European *ḱel- (“to hide”). Cognate with Scots heal (“to cover, hide, conceal”), Saterland Frisian hela (“to conceal”), Dutch helen (“to conceal”), German hehlen (“to deal in stolen or illegal goods”), Swedish häla (“hide”) and hälare (“fence, peddler of stolen goods”), as well as with helmet and Latin cēlō (“conceal”). Related to hole, hull.

Words formed from hele

Words that rhyme with hele

48 more rhymesFewer rhymes

Questions about hele

What does hele mean?
Hele means to hide, conceal, and keep secret, especially for a secret society (such as the masons).
What is hele the obsolete form of?
Hele is the obsolete form of heal.
What part of speech is hele?
Hele can be a verb, a proper noun or a noun.
How do you pronounce hele?
Hele is pronounced /hiːl/.
What is the past tense of hele?
The past tense of hele is heled.

Words near hele in the dictionary

  1. Heldreich
  2. Heldreich's pine
  3. Heldreich's pines
  4. Heldt
  5. Heldts
  6. hele
  7. helectite
  8. heled
  9. heleia
  10. heleid
  11. heleids

Source and license

Adapted from Wiktionary: hele (page history and authors); Hele (page history and authors); HELE (page history and authors); heal (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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Cite this entry: “hele.” Word.ws, https://word.ws/hele. Based on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.