Hun

[ huhn ]
See synonyms for Hun on Thesaurus.com
noun
  1. a member of a nomadic and warlike Asian people who devastated or controlled large parts of eastern and central Europe and who exercised their greatest power under Attila in the 5th century a.d.

  2. (often lowercase) a barbarous, destructive person; vandal.

  1. Older Slang: Disparaging and Offensive. a contemptuous term used to refer to a German, especially a German soldier in World War I or II.

Origin of Hun

1
before 900; 1895–1900 for def. 3; singular of Huns,Old English Hūnas; cognate with Old Norse Hūnar; akin to Late Latin Hunnī

usage note For Hun

The disparaging and offensive use of this term likens the Germans to the barbarous and warlike Huns of the 4th and 5th centuries. The source of the comparison was a speech by Kaiser Wilhelm II in 1900, encouraging German soldiers bound for China to act toward the Chinese just like “the Huns a thousand years ago.”

Other words from Hun

  • Hunlike, adjective

Words Nearby Hun

Dictionary.com Unabridged Based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2024

How to use Hun in a sentence

  • But as year after year rolled away, Uncle Gambo would still say, "I'se a Hun'erd and ten yeah ole."

    Maid Sally | Harriet A. Cheever
  • You will see the permanently crippled and those that wait for death, a slow and lingering death from the Hun's poisonous gases.

    Private Peat | Harold R. Peat
  • The Red Cross floated over the building, but that emblem of mercy made no difference to the Hun.

    Private Peat | Harold R. Peat
  • The neighbors coming in to see the strange discovery, tore one of the pieces to atoms, in the true Hun and Vandal style.

  • In Germany hunne means giant, and the term “Hun,” meant radically anyone formidable or gigantic.

    Archaic England | Harold Bayley

British Dictionary definitions for Hun

Hun

/ (hʌn) /


noun
  1. a member of any of several Asiatic nomadic peoples speaking Mongoloid or Turkic languages who dominated much of Asia and E Europe from before 300 bc, invading the Roman Empire in the 4th and 5th centuries a.d

  2. informal (esp in World War I) a derogatory name for a German (def. 2)

  1. informal a vandal

Origin of Hun

1
Old English Hūnas, from Late Latin Hūnī, from Turkish Hun-yū

Derived forms of Hun

  • Hunlike, adjective

Collins English Dictionary - Complete & Unabridged 2012 Digital Edition © William Collins Sons & Co. Ltd. 1979, 1986 © HarperCollins Publishers 1998, 2000, 2003, 2005, 2006, 2007, 2009, 2012