Word.ws English Dictionary

hen's tooth

hen's tooth noun: anything not naturally occurring.

Noun

hen's tooth (plural hen's teeth or hens' teeth)

  1. (idiomatic) Anything not naturally occurring.
    • as rare as a hen's tooth
    • Indeed, many of the Dutch in Pernambuco were won over to the Church of Rome, ‘whereas converts from Catholicism to Calvinism were as rare as hens’ teeth’.1992, Edwin Williamson, The Penguin history of Latin America, London; New York: Penguin Books, →ISBN, page 183

Synonyms of hen's tooth

Forms of hen's tooth

pluralhen's teeth
pluralhens' teeth

Origin of hen's tooth

Example of a jocularly non-existent phenomenon, as many birds lack any teeth (having developed a bill instead). Compare horsefeathers and when pigs fly.

Questions about hen's tooth

What does hen's tooth mean?
Hen's tooth means anything not naturally occurring.
What part of speech is hen's tooth?
Hen's tooth is a noun.
What is the plural of hen's tooth?
The plural of hen's tooth is hen's teeth.

Words near hen's tooth in the dictionary

  1. hen's night
  2. hen's nights
  3. hen's parties
  4. hen's party
  5. hen's teeth
  6. hen's tooth
  7. hen's-foot
  8. hen-cackle
  9. hen-cackles
  10. hen-hawk
  11. hen-hawks

Source and license

Adapted from Wiktionary: hen's tooth (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-hen's tooth.ogg.

Cite this entry: “hen's tooth.” Word.ws, https://word.ws/hen%27s_tooth. Based on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.