hollow

UK/ˈhɒləʊ/

More pronunciations (1)Fewer pronunciations

Northumbria/ˈhɒlə/

hollow noun: a small valley between mountains. Also the alternative form of hollo.

Noun

hollow (plural hollows)

A small valley between mountains.
- He built himself a cabin in a hollow high up in the Rockies.
- Forests grew upon the barren hollows.c. 1710–20, Matthew Prior, The First Hymn Of Callimachus: To Jupiter
A sunken area on a surface.
- He held the chick in the hollow of his hand.
Synonyms:

depression
An unfilled space in something solid; a cavity, natural or artificial.
- a hollow in a tree trunk
Synonyms:

niche
(figuratively) A feeling of emptiness.
- a hollow in the pit of one’s stomach

Verb (1)

hollow (third-person singular simple present hollows, present participle hollowing, simple past and past participle hollowed)

(transitive) to make a hole in something; to excavate

Adjective

hollow (comparative hollower, superlative hollowest)

Having an empty space or cavity inside.
- a hollow tree; a hollow sphere
Distant, eerie; echoing, reverberating, as if in a hollow space; dull, muffled; often low-pitched.
- He let out a hollow moan.
- Through thy battlements, Newstead, the hollow winds whistle:1903, George Gordon Byron, On Leaving Newstead Abbey
(figuratively) Without substance; having no real or significant worth; meaningless.
- a hollow victory
(figuratively) Insincere, devoid of validity; specious.
- a hollow promise
- "Hey, if anything happens to that, my ass is grass," Y.T. says. She's trying to sound tough and brave, but it's a hollow act in these circumstances.2011, Neal Stephenson, Snow Crash, Penguin Books, →ISBN, →OCLC, →OL, page 170
Concave; gaunt; sunken.
- To view with hollow eye and wrinkled browc. 1596–1598 (date written), William Shakespeare, “The Merchant of Venice”, in Mr. William Shakespeares Comedies, Histories, & Tragedies […] (First Folio), London: […] Isaac Iaggard, and Ed[ward]...
Pertaining to hollow body position
Synonym of empty (“lacking between the onset of tasting and the finish”).
- While most 1974s remain hard, tannic, hollow wines lacking ripeness, flesh, and character, a number of the Graves estates did produce surprisingly spicy, interesting wines.2002, Robert M. Parker (Jr.), Pierre-Antoine Rovani, Parker's Wine Buyer's Guide (page 175)
Synonyms:

empty

Adverb

hollow (not comparable)

(colloquial) Completely, as part of the phrase beat hollow or beat all hollow.

Verb (2)

hollow (third-person singular simple present hollows, present participle hollowing, simple past and past participle hollowed)

To call or urge by shouting; to hollo.
- [T]he Converſation (if it may be called ſo) was ſeldom ſuch as could entertain a Lady. It conſiſted chiefly of Hollowing, Singing, Relations of ſporting Adventures, B—d—y, and Abuſe of Women and of the Government.1749, Henry Fielding, chapter IV, in The History of Tom Jones, a Foundling, volume III, London: A[ndrew] Millar, […], →OCLC, book VII, page 26
- This made Jill pout,
  And she ran out,
  And Jack did quickly follow,
  They rode dog Ball,
  Jill got a fall
  How Jack did laugh and hollow.1810, Jack and Jill, and old Dame Gill, York: J. Kendrew, page 5

Also used as

hollow is also the alternative form of hollo.

hollow meaning in Hindi, Marathi, Urdu and Bengali

hollow in Hindi

sunken area: गड्ढा gaḍḍhā
unfilled space in something solid; a cavity — see also cavity, hole: छेद ched
feeling of emptiness: खालीपन khālīpan, शून्यता śūnyatā
having an empty space inside: खोखला khokhlā

hollow in Marathi

having an empty space inside: पोकळ pokaḷ

hollow in Urdu

having an empty space inside: کھوکھلا khokhlā

hollow in Bengali

ফাঁপা

More languagesFewer languages

hollow in Telugu: బోలు bōlu, డొల్ల ḍolla, శుష్క śuṣka
hollow in Malayalam: പൊള്ള poḷḷa, പൊള്ളയായ poḷḷayāya
hollow in Kannada: ಟೊಳ್ಳಾದ
hollow in Punjabi: ਖੋਖਲਾ khokhlā, ਥੋਥਾ thothā
hollow in Gujarati: ખોખલો
hollow in Sanskrit: रिक्त rikta, शून्य śūnya, शून्यमध्य śūnyamadhya, सुषिर suṣira
hollow in Nepali: खोखला, खोखलो
hollow in Tagalog: bamban
hollow in Arabic: أَجْوَف ʔajwaf
hollow in Persian: گود gowd, کاواک kâvâk, پوک puk, توخالی tuxâli
hollow in Thai: กลวง gluuang
hollow in Vietnamese: rỗng

Examples of hollow in a sentence

She looked old and thin with sunken cheeks and hollow eyes.
Those brass knobs and their hollow counterparts interlock perfectly.
Our neighborhood was our only reason to exchange hollow greetings.

All 40 example sentences with hollow

Synonyms of hollow

Forms of hollow

Noun
plural	hollows
alternative form	hallow
alternative Southern US especially (nonstandard, dialectal)	holler
Verb
third-person singular present	hollows
present participle	hollowing
past participle	hollowed
past	hollowed
Adjective
comparative	hollower
superlative	hollowest

Past tense of hollow: hollowed

Plural of hollow: hollows

Origin of hollow

From Middle English holow, holowe, holwe, holwȝ, holgh, from Old English holh (“a hollow”), from Proto-West Germanic *holh, from Proto-Germanic *hulwiją, from Proto-Germanic *hulaz, from Proto-Indo-European *ḱel- (“to cover, hide”). Cognate with Old High German huliwa and hulwa, Middle High German hülwe. Related to hole.

From Middle English holowe, holwe, holuȝ, holgh, from the noun (see above).

Compare holler.

Phrases with hollow

9 more phrasesFewer phrases

Words that rhyme with hollow

Questions about hollow

What does hollow mean?: Hollow means a small valley between mountains.
What is hollow in Hindi?: Hollow in Hindi is गड्ढा (gaḍḍhā), छेद (ched), खालीपन (khālīpan). See Hollow meaning in Hindi.
What part of speech is hollow?: Hollow can be a noun, a verb, an adjective or an adverb.
How do you pronounce hollow?: Hollow is pronounced /ˈhɒləʊ/ (UK).
What is the plural of hollow?: The plural of hollow is hollows.

Words near hollow in the dictionary

Adapted from Wiktionary: hollow (page history and authors); hollow (Bengali, IndicTrans2 machine translation) (model and license); hollow (Kannada, IndicTrans2 machine translation) (model and license); hollow (Gujarati, IndicTrans2 machine translation) (model and license); hollow (Nepali, IndicTrans2 machine translation) (model and license). 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

Pronunciation audio from Wikimedia Commons, each file under its own free license: en-us-hollow.ogg.

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