Word.ws English Dictionary

hence

/ˈhɛns/

hence adverb: from here, from this place, away.

Adverb

hence (not comparable)

  1. (archaic) From here, from this place, away.
    • I'm going hence, because you have insulted me.
    • Get thee hence, Satan!
    Synonyms:
    herefrom
  2. (archaic, figuratively) From the living or from this world.
    • After a long battle, my poor daughter was taken hence.
  3. In the future from now.
    • A year hence it will be forgotten.
    • […]And now farewell / Till half an hour hence.1610–1611 (date written), William Shakespeare, “The Tempest”, in Mr. William Shakespeares Comedies, Histories, & Tragedies […] (First Folio), London: […] Isaac Iaggard, and Ed[ward] Blount, published...
  4. (conjunctive) As a result; therefore, for this reason.
    • I shall go to Japan and hence will not be here in time for the party.
    • The purse is handmade and hence very expensive.
    Synonyms:
    consequently

Interjection

  1. (obsolete) Go away! Begone!
    • Zuc[cone]. Hence auant I will marie a woman with no wombe, a creature with two noſes, a wench with no haire rather then remarie thee, […]1604 (date written), Iohn Marston [i.e., John Marston], Parasitaster, or The Fawne, […], London: […] T[homas] P[urfoot] for W[illiam] C[otton], published 1606, →OCLC, Act IV, scene i
    • Mira[nda]. Beſeech you Father.
      Proſ[pero]. Hence: hang not on my garments.1610–1611 (date written), William Shakespeare, “The Tempest”, in Mr. William Shakespeares Comedies, Histories, & Tragedies […] (First Folio), London: […] Isaac Iaggard, and Ed[ward] Blount, published...

Verb

hence (third-person singular simple present hences, present participle hencing, simple past and past participle henced)

  1. (obsolete, transitive) To utter "hence!" to; to send away.
  2. (dated, intransitive) To depart; to go away.

Proper noun capitalized: Hence

Hence

  1. (rare) A male given name.

hence meaning in Tamil, Urdu, Bengali and Malayalam

hence in Tamil

இங்கிருந்து, இதனால்

hence in Urdu

لہذا, پس, یہاں سے

hence in Bengali

অতএব, সুতরাং, এই স্থান হইতে, ভবিষ্যতে

hence in Malayalam

അതിൽ പിന്നീട്, മേലാൽ, ഇതു നിമിത്തം, ഹേതുവായി
More languagesFewer languages
hence in Kannada
ಆದ್ದರಿಂದ, ಅದಕ್ಕೋಸ್ಕರ, ಅದಕ್ಕಾಗಿ, ಇಂದಿನಿಂದ
hence in Pashto
ځکه źëka, نو no
hence in Arabic
وَعَلَيْهِ waʕalayhi, وَمِنْ ثَمَّ wamin ṯamma
hence in Malay
dari sini, kerana itu, oleh sebab itu, justeru itu

Examples of hence in a sentence

  • O Gertrude, come away: / The sun no ſooner ſhall the Mountaines touch, / But we will ſhip him hence,c. 1599–1602 (date written), William Shakespeare, “The Tragedie of Hamlet, Prince of Denmarke”, in Mr. William Shakespeares Comedies...
  • Ye men of Galilee! / Why stand ye looking up to heaven, where Him ye ne’er may see, / Neither ascending hence, nor returning hither again?1849, Arthur Hugh Clough, Easter Day (Naples, 1849):
  • I must watch and think, for to-morrow night we go hence, and the time is long since I trod the path that we must follow.'1886 October – 1887 January, H[enry] Rider Haggard, She: A History of Adventure, London: Longmans, Green, and Co., published 1887, →OCLC:
  • There may be an occasion to do so two years hence.2024, Marshall H. Tanick, “Diversity on the bench should not only be about gender and race”, in MinnPost:

All 40 example sentences with hence

Synonyms of hence

Antonyms

Forms of hence

third-person singular presenthences
present participlehencing
past participlehenced
pasthenced

Origin of hence

A later Middle English spelling, retaining the voiceless -s, of hennes (henne + adverbial genitive ending -s), from Old English heonan (“away", "hence”), from a Proto-West Germanic *hin-, from Proto-Germanic *hiz, and Proto-Germanic *-anē. Cognate with Old Saxon hinan, Old High German hinnan (German hinnen), Dutch heen, Swedish hän. Related to Old English her (“here”).

Words formed from hence

Words that rhyme with hence

16 more rhymesFewer rhymes

Questions about hence

What does hence mean?
Hence means from here, from this place, away.
What is hence in Tamil?
Hence in Tamil is இங்கிருந்து, இதனால். See Hence meaning in Tamil.
How do you use hence in a sentence?
O Gertrude, come away: / The sun no ſooner ſhall the Mountaines touch, / But we will ſhip him hence,
What part of speech is hence?
Hence can be an adverb, an interjection, a verb or a proper noun.
How do you pronounce hence?
Hence is pronounced /ˈhɛns/.

Words near hence in the dictionary

  1. henbane
  2. henbanes
  3. henbit
  4. henbits
  5. Henbury
  6. hence
  7. hence why
  8. henceafter
  9. henced
  10. henceforth
  11. henceforward

Source and license

Adapted from Wiktionary: hence (page history and authors); Hence (page history and authors); hence (Tamil Wiktionary) (page history and authors); hence (Urdu Wiktionary) (page history and authors); hence (Bengali Wiktionary) (page history and authors); hence (Malayalam Wiktionary) (page history and authors); hence (Kannada Wiktionary) (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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Pronunciation audio from Wikimedia Commons, each file under its own free license: en-us-hence.ogg.

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