Hygiene
//ˈhaɪˌd͡ʒiːn// noun, verb, slang
noun, verb, slang ·Moderate ·High school level
Definitions
Noun
- 1 The science of health, its promotion and preservation. countable, uncountable
- 2 the science concerned with the prevention of illness and maintenance of health wordnet
- 3 Those conditions and practices that promote and preserve health. countable, uncountable
"Hygiene is an important consideration in places where food is prepared."
- 4 a condition promoting sanitary practices wordnet
- 5 Cleanliness. countable, uncountable
"They have poor personal hygiene."
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- 6 The property of having an expansion that is guaranteed not to cause the accidental capture of identifiers. countable, slang, uncountable
Example
More examples"She studies hygiene as part of her domestic science course."
Etymology
From French hygiène, from Ancient Greek ὑγιεινή (τέχνη) (hugieinḗ (tékhnē), literally “art of health”), from ὑγιεινός (hugieinós, “of health, good for the health, wholesome, sound, healthy”), from ὑγιής (hugiḗs, “healthy, sound”).
Related phrases
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Data sourced from Wiktionary, WordNet, CMU, and other open linguistic databases. Updated March 2026.