• enPR: hĕl, IPA: /hɛl/

1. In various religions, the place where some or all spirits are believed to go after death
   • 1611, KJV, Proverbs, 23:14

     quote en

2. (in many religions, uncountable) The place where sinners suffer after death

   May you rot in hell!

• See Thesaurus:afterlife

• (in many religions) heaven

• French: enfer
• German: Hölle, Fegefeuer
• Italian: inferno
• Portuguese: inferno
• Russian: ад
• Spanish: infierno

hell

1. (countable, hyperbole, figuratively) A place or situation of great suffering in life.

   My new boss is making my job a hell.

   I went through hell to get home today.

   callback hell; <table> hell; <div> hell

   • 1879, General William T. Sherman, commencement address at the Michigan Military Academy

     quote en

2. (countable) A place#Noun|place for gambling#Noun|gambling.

   • quote en

   • 1906 January–October, Joseph Conrad, chapter II, in The Secret Agent: A Simple Tale, London: Methuen & Co., […], published 1907, OCLC 270548466 ↗; The Secret Agent: A Simple Tale (Collection of British Authors; 3995), copyright edition, Leipzig: Bernhard Tauchnitz, 1907, OCLC 1107573959 ↗, page 15 ↗:

     But there was also about him an indescribable air which no mechanic could have acquired in the practice of his handicraft however dishonestly exercised: [...] the air of moral nihilism common to keepers of gambling hells and disorderly houses; [...]

3. (figuratively) An extremely hot place.

   You don’t have a snowball's chance in hell.

4. (sometimes considered vulgar) Used as an glossary intensifier in phrases grammatically requiring a noun.

   I’m as mad as hell and I’m not going to take it any more.

   What the hell is wrong with you?!

   He says he’s going home early? Like hell he is.

5. (obsolete) A place into which a tailor throw#Verb|throws shred#Noun|shreds, or a printer discard#Verb|discards broken type#Noun|type.
6. quote en

• French: enfer
• German: Hölle
• Italian: inferno
• Portuguese: inferno
• Russian: ад
• Spanish: infierno

• Portuguese: inferno
• Russian: пекло

1. (impolite, sometimes considered vulgar) Used to express discontent, unhappiness, or anger.

   Oh, hell! I got another parking ticket.

   • 1596-97, William Shakespeare, The Merchant Of Venice, Act II Scene 7

     O hell! what have we here?

     A carrion Death, within whose empty eye

     There is a written scroll! [...]

2. (impolite, sometimes considered vulgar) Used to emphasize.

   Hell, yeah!

3. (impolite, sometimes considered vulgar) Used to introduce an intensified statement following an understated one; nay; not only that, but.

   [Do it, or, r]est assured, there will be no more Middle Eastern crisis – hell, there will be no more Middle East!

• German: zur Hölle!, Himmel!, Teufel!
• Russian: чёрт

hell (not comparable)

1. (postpositional) Alternative form of the hell#English|the hell or like hell.
   • 1991, Stephen Fry, The Liar, p. 35:

     ‘I know whether a boy is telling me the truth or not.’
     ‘Thank you, sir.’
     Did he hell. They never bloody did.

hell (hells, present participle helling; past and past participle helled)

1. (rare, metal-working) To add luster to, burnish (silver or gold).

   • To hell gold or gilt workː take two ounces of tartar, two ounces of sulfur.. and it will give it a fine luster.

hell (hells, present participle helling; past and past participle helled)

1. (rare) To pour.

   • Gosh, the sickle went into me handː Down hell'd the blood.

1. Alternative spelling of Hel
2. Alternative form of Hela
3. Alternative letter-case form of hell
4. Any of various towns so named.