Word.ws English Dictionary

hun

/hʌn/

More pronunciations (1)Fewer pronunciations

Ireland/hʊn/

hun noun: a woman perceived as basic, brash, working class and fond of alcohol. Also the alternative spelling of hon (“affectionate abbreviation of hon.

Noun (1)

hun (plural huns)

  1. (UK, slang) A woman perceived as basic, brash, working class and fond of alcohol.
    • Answer: you are a hun – but a high-end hun, one who knows her wine, her music, her interiors and her labels, and whose reluctance to do Dry January, or go vegan makes her such great company, this month and every month.2023 January 25, Laura Craik, “They’re glamorous, ageless and British – the rise of the high-end hun”, in The Telegraph
    • It’s no wonder she’s become a central figure in “hun culture” – an online subculture that idolises a certain strata of famous working-class British women, while also taking the mick out of her leopard print kettle and weakness for a premixed gin-in-a-tin cocktail.2024 March 29, Louis Staples, “Natalie Cassidy: ‘I’m very proud to be a hun’”, in i
  2. (slang) A woman involved in a multi-level marketing scheme, especially one who pushes it on social media.
    • This corporate love-bombing can serve a hun well, bagging them new downlines and potentially more money (MLMs are renowned for extremely low pay).2019 July 10, Jessica Lindsay, “Hunzoning is the trend that sees you going from friend to MLM recruit”, in Metro
    • Instead of blaming MLM "huns," we should direct our anger at the companies that are knowingly putting so many people in debt and alienating them from their communities.2024 April 18, Aimee Pearcy, “Why Reddit and TikTok are hating on MLM 'huns'”, in Business Insider

Noun (2)

hun (plural huns)

  1. A grey partridge.

Noun (3) capitalized: Hun

Hun (plural Huns)

  1. A member of a nomadic tribe (the Huns) who invaded Europe in the fourth century from Central Asia.
  2. (figuratively) A vandal, a barbarian, an uncivilized destructive person.
  3. (derogatory, ethnic, slang, slur) A German.
    • Doubtless the first German band to return to England will be composed of the most gentle peace and beer-loving Huns that ever visited our favoured shores.1919, Gerald Featherstone Knight, Brother Bosch: An Airman's Escape from Germany
    Synonyms:
    Fritz, Jerry, Kraut
  4. (Ireland, UK, derogatory, slang) A Protestant.
  5. (Ireland, UK, derogatory, slang) A Rangers Football Club supporter; an Orangeman.
    Synonyms:
    Orangeman

Proper noun capitalized: Hun

Hun (plural Huns)

  1. A surname from Khmer.

Also used as

hun is also the alternative spelling of hon (“affectionate abbreviation of hon.

hun is also the alternative form of hoon.

hun meaning in Tamil, Telugu, Malayalam and Kannada

hun in Tamil

ஹன், ஹூன்

hun in Telugu

హున్

hun in Malayalam

ഹുൻ

hun in Kannada

ಹನ್, ಹುನ್

Synonyms of hun

Forms of hun

Noun
pluralhuns
pluralHuns
Proper noun
pluralHuns

Plural of hun: huns

Origin of hun

Clipping of honey with pronunciation spelling.

Clipping of Hungarian partridge.

From Old English Hūnas, Hūne (both plural), from Late Latin Hunni, from Koine Greek Οὗννοι (Hoûnnoi), borrowed through Middle Iranian. Cognate with Old Norse húnir, Old High German Hunni. See also etymology of Xiongnu. Compare Sogdian 𐼶𐼴𐼻 (xwn), Sanskrit हूण (hūṇa), and 匈奴 (OC *hoŋ-nâ) (c. 318 BCE) > *hɨoŋ-nɑ (Eastern Han), which Schuessler (2014:264) proposes to be transcription of foreign *Hŏna ~ Hŭna. More at Huns. As a derogatory term for Germans popularized by Rudyard Kipling, reacting to Germany's proposal that the Royal Navy be used to collect debts from Venezuela.

Words formed from hun

Phrases with hun

Words that rhyme with hun

48 more rhymesFewer rhymes

Questions about hun

What does hun mean?
Hun means a woman perceived as basic, brash, working class and fond of alcohol.
What is hun in Tamil?
Hun in Tamil is ஹன், ஹூன். See Hun meaning in Tamil.
What part of speech is hun?
Hun can be a noun or a proper noun.
How do you pronounce hun?
Hun is pronounced /hʌn/.
What is the plural of hun?
The plural of hun is huns.

Words near hun in the dictionary

  1. humyn
  2. humynkind
  3. humyns
  4. Humza
  5. Humzas
  6. hun
  7. Hun-ch'un
  8. Hun-chun
  9. Hun-like
  10. huN901-DM1
  11. Huna

Source and license

Adapted from Wiktionary: hun (page history and authors); Hun (page history and authors); hun (Tamil, IndicTrans2 machine translation) (model and license); hun (Telugu, IndicTrans2 machine translation) (model and license); hun (Malayalam, IndicTrans2 machine translation) (model and license); hun (Kannada, 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:

Pronunciation audio from Wikimedia Commons, each file under its own free license: LL-Q1860 (eng)-Vealhurl-hun3.wav, EN-AU ck1 Hun.ogg.

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