hilloa

hilloa is the obsolete spelling of hello.

Meaning of hello

A greeting (salutation) said when meeting someone or acknowledging someone’s arrival or presence.
- Hello, everyone.
A greeting used when answering the telephone.
- Hello? How may I help you?
A call for response if it is not clear if anyone is present or listening, or if a telephone conversation may have been disconnected.
- Hello? Is anyone there?
(colloquial) Used sarcastically to imply that the person addressed has done something the speaker considers to be foolish, or missed something that should have been obvious.
- You just tried to start your car with your cell phone. Hello?
(UK) An expression of puzzlement or discovery.
- Hello! What’s going on here?
Synonyms:

adzooks, ay, caramba, mirabile dictu, chihuahua, begorra, bleeding heck, bleeding Nora, bless my heart, bless my soul

hilloa (third-person singular simple present hilloas, present participle hilloaing, simple past and past participle hilloaed)

(obsolete) To holler, shout loudly
- I heard old Jenkins, scarcely recovered from the effects of his potations, hilloaing at the top of his voice for Julia1836, James White, The adventures of Sir Frizzle Pumpkin, Nights at mess, and other tales

third-person singular present	hilloas
present participle	hilloaing
past participle	hilloaed
past	hilloaed

What does hilloa mean?: Hilloa means to holler, shout loudly.
What is hilloa the obsolete spelling of?: Hilloa is the obsolete spelling of hello.
What part of speech is hilloa?: Hilloa is a verb.
What is the past tense of hilloa?: The past tense of hilloa is hilloaed.

Adapted from Wiktionary: hilloa (page history and authors); hello (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: 2026-09-02

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