Hella

//ˈhɛl.ə// adv, contraction, det, intj, name, pron, slang

adv, contraction, det, intj, name, pron, slang ·Moderate ·High school level

Definitions

Adverb
  1. 1
    Intensifier, modifying verbs; to a large extent; totally; very much. Northern-California, not-comparable, slang

    "I can't tell you how much I hella love the new track."

  2. 2
    Intensifier, modifying adjectives; to a large degree; extremely; exceedingly. US, not-comparable, regional, slang

    "I guess she seems hella stoned in her commercial."

Determiner
  1. 1
    Intensifier, signifies an abundance of a thing; much or many. Northern-California, slang

    "There are hella people here."

Pronoun
  1. 1
    A lot; very much. Northern-California, slang

    "We paid hella for that Chinese cuisine."

Intj
  1. 1
    For sure; totally; hell yeah; used as a strong affirmation of something that was just said, accomplished, or revealed. Northern-California, slang

    ""We definitely rocked that shit man!" "Hella!""

Contraction
  1. 1
    Contraction of Hell + have. abbreviation, alt-of, contraction, nonstandard

    "Where the hella you been?"

Proper Noun
  1. 1
    Any of various place names.

Synonyms

All synonyms
baredumbheckaheckaheckahell

Example

More examples

"There's hella empty seats over there."

Etymology

Etymology 1

Related to "a hell of a". Originally Northern California slang. Compare helluv, helluva.

Etymology 2

Shortened form, or elision, of phrases like "hell have", approximating casual speech in writing.

Related phrases

for surehell yeahvery much

More for "hella"

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Data sourced from Wiktionary, WordNet, CMU, and other open linguistic databases. Updated March 2026.