What does "hale" mean?
Health, welfare.
Hale
/heɪl/ adj, name, noun, verb
adj, name, noun, verb ·Common ·High school level
Meaning at a glance
- Primary sense: Health, welfare.
- Grammar: hale is listed as adj, name, noun, verb.
- Nearest alternatives: able-bodied, beefy, bouncing, bunkum.
- Useful contrasts: ill, unhale, weak.
- Usage evidence: "I heard that Tom was dying." "Dying? He's hale and hearty!"
How to use "hale"
- Start with the primary definition, then check the part of speech before placing the word in a sentence.
- Compare nearby synonyms to make sure "hale" carries the exact meaning, tone, and strength you need.
- Use the example sentence as a context check. If your sentence uses the word differently, confirm that the grammar still fits.
Meaning check
- Does the word fit the sentence's grammar?
- Does it match the intended tone rather than only the dictionary definition?
- Would a simpler synonym be clearer for the reader?
- Is there enough surrounding context to prevent ambiguity?
Source and review context
This entry combines structured lexical data with WordToolSet review checks. Definitions, examples, synonyms, and usage notes may come from different source tables, so the page is designed to show evidence from more than one angle before you rely on "hale" in a final draft.
If a word has several senses, prefer the sense that matches your sentence's grammar and surrounding context. A correct definition can still be the wrong choice when the sentence needs a different register, emphasis, or level of specificity.
Before you rely on this definition
Read the first definition as a starting point, then check the example, synonyms, and part of speech before treating "hale" as the right word for your sentence.
If your draft is formal, technical, persuasive, or sensitive, compare "hale" with a nearby alternative so the final choice matches both meaning and reader expectation.
Compare nearby meanings
- Use synonyms when you need a softer, stronger, simpler, or more specific word.
- Use antonyms to check the boundary of the meaning and avoid accidental contrast.
- Use the example sentence to confirm the word behaves naturally in context.
- Keep the original wording when a replacement adds complexity without improving precision.
Definition decision workflow
1. Identify the role
Check whether "hale" is acting as adj, name, noun, verb in your sentence. A definition is only useful when the grammar matches the way the word is being used.
2. Test the nearest option
Compare it with "able-bodied" and other nearby choices to see whether the sentence needs a softer, stronger, or more familiar word.
3. Confirm with context
Use the example sentence below as an evidence check, then read your own sentence out loud to catch tone or rhythm problems.
Review note: Definition pages are checked for source coverage, sentence evidence, synonym support, and editorial insight before they are treated as approval-ready pages. If the evidence is too thin, the page remains available to users but is kept out of the approval-facing indexed inventory.
Final meaning check
Before publishing a sentence with "hale", ask whether the word helps the reader understand the idea faster. A precise word should reduce confusion, not simply make the sentence look more polished.
When the definition, synonym evidence, and example context point in the same direction, the word is usually a safer choice. When they conflict, revise the sentence or choose a clearer alternative.
Definitions
Noun
- 1 Health, welfare. archaic, uncountable
"Then let them vale a bonet of their proud ſayle, / And of their taunting toies reſt with il hayle."
Verb
- 1 To drag or pull, especially forcibly. transitive
"For I had beene vilely hurried and haled by those poore men, which had taken the paines to carry me upon their armes a long and wearysome way, and to say truth, they had all beene wearied twice or thrice over, and were faine to shift severall times."
- 2 draw slowly or heavily wordnet
- 3 to cause to do through pressure or necessity, by physical, moral or intellectual means wordnet
Adjective
- 1 Sound, entire, healthy; robust, not impaired. dated
"His stomach too begins to fail: / Last year we thought him strong and hale; / But now he's quite another thing: / I wish he may hold out till spring!"
Adjective
- 1 exhibiting or restored to vigorous good health wordnet
Proper Noun
- 1 A topographic surname from Old English.
- 2 A place name:; A number of places in England:; A village and civil parish in Halton borough, Cheshire (OS grid ref SJ4682).
- 3 A place name:; A number of places in England:; A hamlet in Beetham parish, Westmorland and Furness, Cumbria, previously in South Lakeland district (OS grid ref SD5078).
- 4 A place name:; A number of places in England:; A village in the Metropolitan Borough of Trafford, Greater Manchester (OS grid ref SJ7786).
- 5 A place name:; A number of places in England:; A small village and civil parish in New Forest district, Hampshire (OS grid ref SU1818).
Show 14 more definitions
- 6 A place name:; A number of places in England:; A hamlet south of Gillingham, Medway borough, Kent (OS grid ref TQ7765).
- 7 A place name:; A number of places in England:; A hamlet in Cucklington parish, Somerset, previously in South Somerset district (OS grid ref ST7527).
- 8 A place name:; A number of places in England:; A suburban village in the north of Farnham parish, Waverley district, Surrey (OS grid ref SU8448).
- 9 A place name:; A number of places in the United States:; An unincorporated community in Yuma County, Colorado.
- 10 A place name:; A number of places in the United States:; An unincorporated community in Jones County, Iowa.
- 11 A place name:; A number of places in the United States:; An unincorporated community in Salt Creek Township, Chautauqua County, Kansas.
- 12 A place name:; A number of places in the United States:; An unincorporated community in Plainfield Township, Iosco County, Michigan.
- 13 A place name:; A number of places in the United States:; A neighbourhood in southern Minneapolis, Minnesota.
- 14 A place name:; A number of places in the United States:; A minor city in Carroll County, Missouri.
- 15 A place name:; A number of places in the United States:; A ghost town in Carbon County, Utah.
- 16 A place name:; A number of places in the United States:; A town and unincorporated community therein, in Trempealeau County, Wisconsin.
- 17 A place name:; A locality on the Algoma Central Railway, Algoma District, Ontario, Canada.
- 18 A place name:; A town in Korogwe District, eastern Tanzania.
- 19 A place name:; A locality in the south of the Northern Territory, Australia, named after the Hale River.
Example
""I heard that Tom was dying." "Dying? He's hale and hearty!""
Common questions
What is a synonym for "hale"?
Common synonyms include: able-bodied, beefy, bouncing, bunkum, cart, coerce.
How do you use "hale" in a sentence?
"I heard that Tom was dying." "Dying? He's hale and hearty!"
How do you pronounce "hale"?
Pronounced /heɪl/.
Etymology
Etymology 1
From Northern Middle English hal, hale, variants of hole (“healthy; safe; whole”) (whence whole), from Old English hāl, from Proto-West Germanic *hail, from Proto-Germanic *hailaz (“whole; entire; healthy”). See whole for more.
Etymology 2
From Middle English hale, an alteration of hele (“health”) after Etymology 1. Cognate with Scots hale (“health”), German Heil (“salvation, well-being”).
Etymology 3
From Middle English halen, from Anglo-Norman haler, from Old Dutch *halon (compare Dutch halen), from Proto-Germanic *halōną (compare Old English ġeholian, West Frisian helje, German holen), from Proto-Indo-European *kelH- (“to lift”) (compare Latin ex-cellō (“to surpass”), Tocharian B käly- (“to stand, stay”), Albanian qell (“to halt, hold up, carry”), Lithuanian kélti (“to raise up”), Ancient Greek κελέοντες (keléontes, “upright beam on a loom”)). Doublet of haul.
Etymology 4
* As an English surname, Old English dative form of halh (“hollow, nook”). * Also as an English surname, from Old English hæle (“hero”). Compare Hain. * As an Irish surname, from mac céile; see McHale. * As a Jewish surname, variant of Halle.