Word.ws English Dictionary

hong

UK/hɒŋ/US/hɔŋ/

hong is the past of hang.

Meaning of hang

Verb

hang (third-person singular simple present hangs, present participle hanging, simple past and past participle hung or (law) hanged)

  1. (intransitive) To be or remain suspended.
    • The lights hung from the ceiling.
    Synonyms:
    be suspend, dangle
  2. (intransitive) To float, as if suspended.
    • The smoke hung in the room.
    Synonyms:
    float, hover
  3. (intransitive) To veer in one direction.
    • The jockey claimed that the horse hung towards the outside[…]1979, Council of Law Reporting for New South Wales, New South Wales Law Reports (non-fiction), New South Wales: Council of Law Reporting for New South Wales, published 1979, page 16
  4. (intransitive, usually) To rebound unexpectedly or unusually slowly, due to backward spin on the ball or imperfections of the ground.
  5. (transitive) To hold or bear in a suspended or inclined manner or position instead of erect.
    • He hung his head in shame.
    Synonyms:
    drop, lower
  6. (transitive) To cause (something) to be suspended, as from a hook, hanger, hinges, or the like.
    • Hang those lights from the ceiling.

See all 32 meanings of hang

Noun

hong (plural hongs)

  1. A foreign trading company in China.
    • "You and your son are about to visit China," said a Chinese agent of an old and established hong in Canton. […] The speaker was Ah Hue, or Ah Hue-Ling. He had made a reputation for honorable dealing as an agent of the tea trade.1901, Hezekiah Butterworth, “1.Strange Things to Be Seen in China – Jataka Tales – the Boxers – American Tea-farms”, in Traveller Tales of China or the Story-Telling Hongs, Boston: Dana Estes &...
    • In this partly manufactured state they are sold to collectors, who re-sell them to tea hongs, or factories, and these hongs in turn resell to middlemen, who supply the foreign exporter.1935, William Ukers, All About Tea

Proper noun (1) capitalized: Hong

Hong

  1. A local government area of Adamawa State, Nigeria.

Proper noun (2) capitalized: Hong

Hong (plural Hongs)

  1. A surname from Mandarin.
    Synonyms:
    Hung, Fung
  2. A surname from Taishanese.
    Synonyms:
    Tang, Tong, Tan

Proper noun (3) capitalized: Hong

Hong (plural Hongs)

  1. A surname from Korean.

Synonyms of hong

Forms of hong

Noun
pluralhongs
Proper noun
pluralHongs

Origin of hong

From Cantonese 行 (hong, “trade, business”).

Borrowed from Mandarin 洪 (Hóng) or Taishanese 湯 /汤 (hong¹).

Borrowed from Korean 홍(洪) (Hong).

Phrases with hong

16 more phrasesFewer phrases

Words that rhyme with hong

26 more rhymesFewer rhymes

Questions about hong

What does hong mean?
Hong means a foreign trading company in China.
What is hong the past of?
Hong is the past of hang.
What part of speech is hong?
Hong can be a noun or a proper noun.
How do you pronounce hong?
Hong is pronounced /hɒŋ/ (UK).
What is the plural of hong?
The plural of hong is hongs.

Words near hong in the dictionary

  1. honeywords
  2. honeywort
  3. honeyworts
  4. honfidence
  5. honfident
  6. hong
  7. hong bao
  8. hong baos
  9. hong boat
  10. hong boats
  11. hong gan

Source and license

Adapted from Wiktionary: hong (page history and authors); Hong (page history and authors); hang (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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Cite this entry: “hong.” Word.ws, https://word.ws/hong. Based on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.