Word.ws English Dictionary

hp

/eɪt͡ʃˌpiː/

hp is the abbreviation of horsepower.

Meaning of horsepower

Noun

horsepower (countable and uncountable, plural horsepowers or horsepower)

  1. (literally, uncountable) Power derived from the motion of a horse.
    • Shillibeer's bus came in 1829 drawn by three horses. Later two horses were found sufficient to pull these closed wagonettes, which eventually had outside seats, and later on the substitution of a motor for horsepower.1971, Gwen White, Antique Toys And Their Background, page 86
  2. A nonmetric unit of power with various definitions, commonly the mechanical horsepower, approximately equal to 745.7 watts.
    • Equally I can stand in a station like Lucerne in Switzerland, and watch with ill-concealed admiration the majestic entry of one of the latest Gotthard "Ae 6/6" electrics, packing 6,000 horsepower within its 60 ft. of length and 121 tons of weight, with its sleek dark green sides and handsome...1955 April, Cecil J. Allen, “British Locomotive Practice and Performance”, in Railway Magazine, page 261
    Synonyms:
    hp
  3. Metric horsepower, a metric unit approximately equal to 735.5 watts.
    Synonyms:
    PS
  4. (figuratively, uncountable) Strength, performance capability, specs, or similar.
    • political horsepower

Proper noun capitalized: HP

HP

  1. (abbreviation, initialism) Initialism of Himachal Pradesh: a state of India.
  2. (abbreviation, initialism) Initialism of Hewlett-Packard.
  3. (abbreviation, initialism) Initialism of Harry Potter.
    • Overall, this is the first HP game to even get near to living up to the quality of JK Rowling's books and the accompanying films.2009 July 16, Steve Boxer, “Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince”, in Guardian, Technology news & features, page 2

Noun (1) capitalized: HP

HP (countable and uncountable, plural HPs or HP)

  1. (abbreviation, initialism) Initialism of hire purchase.
    • Everything is practical, sensible, reasonably priced and available on HP.1976, Angela Carter, ‘What the Hell – It’s Home!’, in Shaking a Leg, Vintage 2013, p. 205
  2. (abbreviation, initialism) Initialism of horsepower.
  3. (abbreviation, initialism) Initialism of hit points / health points.
    • If you stay at a hotel, you'll wake up with full HP and PP.1995, Ape Inc., HAL Laboratory, EarthBound, Nintendo, Super Nintendo Entertainment System
  4. (abbreviation, initialism) Initialism of higher power.
  5. (abbreviation, initialism) Initialism of Houses of Parliament.
  6. (abbreviation, initialism) Initialism of Helicobacter pylori.
  7. (abbreviation, initialism) Initialism of hydrogen peroxide.
    Synonyms:
    HPO, PO
  8. (Indonesia, Malaysia, Singapore, South-Korea, abbreviation, initialism) Initialism of handphone.
  9. (Japan, abbreviation, initialism) Initialism of home page.
  10. (abbreviation, initialism) Initialism of horizontal pitch.

Noun (2) capitalized: Hp

Hp (plural Hps)

  1. (abbreviation) Abbreviation of haptoglobin.

Synonyms of hp

Forms of hp

pluralhp
alternative formHP
pluralHPs
pluralHP
pluralHps

Origin of hp

Sense "home page" is a borrowing from Japanese HP (HP, “home page”), from English home page.

Words formed from hp

Questions about hp

What is hp the abbreviation of?
Hp is the abbreviation of horsepower.
What part of speech is hp?
Hp can be a proper noun or a noun.
How do you pronounce hp?
Hp is pronounced /eɪt͡ʃˌpiː/.

Words near hp in the dictionary

  1. Hozomeen
  2. Hoà Bình
  3. Hoàng Sa
  4. Hoàng Su Phì
  5. Hoʻoleilana
  6. hp
  7. HP-UX
  8. HPA
  9. hpaB
  10. Hpakant
  11. HPAs

Source and license

Adapted from Wiktionary: hp (page history and authors); HP (page history and authors); Hp (page history and authors); horsepower (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: en-ca-HP.ogg.

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