hell-bent
/ˈhɛlˌbɛnt/
hell-bent adjective: recklessly determined to do or achieve (something).
Adjective
hell-bent (comparative more hell-bent, superlative most hell-bent)
- Recklessly determined to do or achieve (something).
- He was hell-bent on coming first, no matter what.
- If somebody had asked me why I was so hell-bent on grabbing a piece of Penny Hardwick's chest, I wouldn't have known what to say. And if somebody were to ask Penny why she was so hell-bent on stopping me, I'll bet she'd be stumped for an answer too.1995, Nick Hornby, High Fidelity, London: Victor Gollancz, →ISBN, page 16
- Synonyms:
- dead set
Adverb
hell-bent (comparative more hell-bent, superlative most hell-bent)
hell-bent meaning in Malayalam and Persian
hell-bent in Malayalam
- determined, intent, bent
- രണ്ടും കല്പിച്ചുള്ള, ദൃഢനിശ്ചയത്തോടെയുള്ള, തുനിഞ്ഞിറങ്ങിയ, ഉറപ്പിച്ച ഉദ്ദേശ്യലക്ഷ്യത്തോടുകൂടിയ, ദൃഢനിശ്ചയമുള്ള, നിർബ്ബന്ധബുദ്ധിയുള്ള
hell-bent in Persian
- recklessly determined to do or achieve something
- لجوج lajuj
Synonyms of hell-bent
Forms of hell-bent
| Adjective | |
|---|---|
| comparative | more hell-bent |
| superlative | most hell-bent |
| alternative form | hellbent |
| alternative form | hel-bent |
| alternative form | hel bent |
| Adverb | |
| comparative | more hell-bent |
| superlative | most hell-bent |
Origin of hell-bent
From hell (“in a manner that uses all of the strength, speed, or effort that a person can summon”) + bent (“determined, insistent”), that is, in the sense “determined like hell”.
Words formed from hell-bent
Words that rhyme with hell-bent
48 more rhymesFewer rhymes
- repent
- ascent
- rent
- resent
- scent
- absent
- augment
- cement
- content
- extent
- fragment
- lent
- prevent
- anent
- consent
- dent
- dissent
- percent
- relent
- spent
- Tashkent
- tent
- accent
- circumvent
- convent
- discontent
- intent
- invent
- went
- %
- assent
- dement
- ferment
- foment
- gent
- Gwent
- incent
- lament
- malcontent
- reinvent
- stent
- underrepresent
- attent
- big tent
- blent
- detent
- diapertent
- djent
Questions about hell-bent
- What does hell-bent mean?
- Hell-bent means recklessly determined to do or achieve (something).
- What is hell-bent in Malayalam?
- Hell-bent in Malayalam is രണ്ടും കല്പിച്ചുള്ള, ദൃഢനിശ്ചയത്തോടെയുള്ള, തുനിഞ്ഞിറങ്ങിയ. See Hell-bent meaning in Malayalam.
- What part of speech is hell-bent?
- Hell-bent can be an adjective or an adverb.
- How do you pronounce hell-bent?
- Hell-bent is pronounced /ˈhɛlˌbɛnt/ (UK).
Words near hell-bent in the dictionary
Source and license
Adapted from Wiktionary: hell-bent (page history and authors); hell-bent (Olam, E.K. Kurup corpus) (dataset and license). 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)-I learned some phrases-hell-bent.wav.
Cite this entry: “hell-bent.” Word.ws, https://word.ws/hell-bent. Based on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.