Word.ws English Dictionary

hern

/hɜːn/

hern noun: corner, nook.

Noun (1)

hern (plural herns)

  1. (dialectal) Corner, nook.
  2. (dialectal) A recess beside a wide chimney-fireside.
  3. (dialectal) A corner of angular piece of land; a nook of land projecting into another district, parish, or field.

Pronoun

hern

  1. (Appalachia, especially, obsolete outside UK and US dialects) Hers; her own.

Noun (2)

hern (plural herns)

  1. (dialectal, poetic) Heron.
    • Now for Swans & Ducks, and such like Birds of the Water, it is obvious to take notice how well they are fitted for that manner of life. For those that swim, their Feet are framed for it like a pair of Oars, their Claws being connected with a pretty broad Membrane; and their Necks are long, that...1662, Henry More, An Antidote Against Atheism, Book II, A Collection of Several Philosophical Writings of Dr. Henry More, p. 73

Proper noun capitalized: Hern

Hern (plural Herns)

  1. A surname.

Forms of hern

Noun
pluralherns
alternative formherne
alternative formhirn
alternative formhirne
alternative formhurn
alternative formhurne
alternative formhon
Pronoun
alternative formher'n
Proper noun
pluralHerns

Origin of hern

From Middle English herne, hyrne, from Old English hyrne (“corner”), from Proto-Germanic *hurnijō, *hurnijǭ (“projecting point, corner, angle”), from Proto-Indo-European *ḱerh₂- (“horn”). Doublet of hirn. Further related to horn.

From Middle English hiren, hirne, from the same source as her. The -n was added (especially in the speech of the Midlands and Southern England, starting in the 1300s) by analogy with mine and thine. (Compare ourn.) Displaced in standard speech by the -s form, hers, which see for more. Cognate with West Flemish heurn (“hern”).

Dialectal variant of heron.

Words that rhyme with hern

28 more rhymesFewer rhymes

Questions about hern

What does hern mean?
Hern means corner, nook.
What part of speech is hern?
Hern can be a noun, a pronoun or a proper noun.
How do you pronounce hern?
Hern is pronounced /hɜːn/.
What is the plural of hern?
The plural of hern is herns.

Words near hern in the dictionary

  1. Hermoupolis
  2. herms
  3. Hermsdorf
  4. Hermsen
  5. Hermsens
  6. hern
  7. Hernandes
  8. Hernandez
  9. Hernandezmarti
  10. Hernandezmartis
  11. Hernandezs

Source and license

Adapted from Wiktionary: hern (page history and authors); Hern (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: LL-Q1860 (eng)-Vealhurl-hern.wav.

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