hell week
hell week noun: the week during which new members are required to undergo undignified rites of initiation or gruelling discipline in order to be accepted into a fraternity, sorority, secret society, military group, etc.
Noun (1)
hell week (plural hell weeks)
- The week during which new members are required to undergo undignified rites of initiation or gruelling discipline in order to be accepted into a fraternity, sorority, secret society, military group, etc.
- She was among a number of cadets taken to the infirmary with heat sickness on the first day of the rigorous drills called hell week.1995 September 10, “Citadel's First Female Cadet Tells of the Stress of Her Court Fight”, in New York Times, retrieved 14 Jun 2011
- In a college or university, the week leading up to final examinations.
- As a college freshman, this was vividly impressed on me during my first exposure to hell week. Hell week is the term many students use in reference to what professors and other college officials call final exam week.1991, James K. Semones, Effective Study Skills: A Step-by-step System for Achieving Student Success, page xvii
- I finished my exam and handed it to the grad assistant at the front row. […] I had finished Hell Week! Winter break has officially begun.2002, Paul Laska, Four Years, page 147
Noun (2) capitalized: Hell Week
Hell Week (plural Hell Weeks)
- Alternative form of hell week.
Forms of hell week
| plural | hell weeks |
|---|---|
| alternative form | Hell Week |
| plural | Hell Weeks |
Questions about hell week
- What does hell week mean?
- Hell week means the week during which new members are required to undergo undignified rites of initiation or gruelling discipline in order to be accepted into a fraternity, sorority, secret society, military group, etc.
- What part of speech is hell week?
- Hell week is a noun.
- What is the plural of hell week?
- The plural of hell week is hell weeks.
Words near hell week in the dictionary
Source and license
Adapted from Wiktionary: hell week (page history and authors); Hell Week (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: en-au-hell week.ogg.
Cite this entry: “hell week.” Word.ws, https://word.ws/hell_week. Based on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.