Hair

Quick meaning: Hair is a noun meaning (countable) A pigmented filament of keratin which grows from a follicle on the skin of humans and other mammals.

Meaning

(countable) A pigmented filament of keratin which grows from a follicle on the skin of humans and other mammals.

More Meanings

1. (uncountable) Specifically, the collection of hairs on the top and sides of the human head, growing from the scalp.
2. (countable) Any slender, flexible outgrowth, filament, or fiber growing or projecting from the surface of an object or organism.
3. (countable) Any very small distance, or degree; a hairbreadth.
4. (uncountable) The collection or mass of such growths growing from the skin of humans and animals, and forming a covering for any part or the whole body.
5. (botany, countable) A cellular outgrowth of the epidermis, consisting of one or of several cells, whether pointed, hooked, knobbed, or stellated.
6. (countable, engineering, firearms) A locking spring or other safety device in the lock of a rifle, etc., capable of being released by a slight pressure on a hair-trigger.
7. (zoology, countable) A slender outgrowth from the chitinous cuticle of insects, spiders, crustaceans, and other invertebrates. Such hairs are totally unlike those of vertebrates in structure, composition, and mode of growth.

Example Sentences

I won by a hair.

And draweth new delights with hoary hairs.

Just a little louder please—turn that knob a hair to the right.

Internal hairs occur in the flower stalk of the yellow frog lily (Nuphar).

Word Forms

• hairs
• hairing
• haired

Synonyms for hair

Depending on context, synonyms include thatch, mop, locks, tomentum, fuzz, hairbreadth.

Related Words

Related dictionary entries include fuzz, haircloth, tomentum, hairbreadth, hairy, capillary.

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