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• hood
  hood

  noun

  a soft or flexible covering for the head and neck, either separate or attached to a cloak, coat, or the like.
• 'hood
  'hood

  noun

  a neighborhood, especially an urban neighborhood inhabited predominantly by African Americans of low socioeconomic status.
• Hood
  Hood

  noun

  John Bell, 1831–79, Confederate general in the U.S. Civil War.
• -hood
  -hood

  a native English suffix denoting state, condition, character, nature, etc., or a body of persons of a particular character or class, formerly used in the formation of nouns: childhood; likelihood; knighthood; priesthood .

hood

¹ American  

[hood] / hʊd /

noun

1. a soft or flexible covering for the head and neck, either separate or attached to a cloak, coat, or the like.

2. something resembling or suggesting such a covering, especially in shape, as certain petals or sepals.

3. the hinged, movable part of an automobile body covering the engine.

4. British. the roof of a carriage.

5. a metal cover or canopy for a stove, ventilator, etc.

6. Falconry. a cover for the entire head of a hawk, used when the bird is not in pursuit of game.

7. an ornamental ruffle or fold on the back of the shoulders of an academic gown, jurist's robe, etc.

8. a crest or band of color on the head of certain birds and animals.

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verb (used with object)

• hoods,
  present (3rd person singular)
• hooded,
  past participle,  past
• hooding
  present participle

1. to furnish with a hood.

2. to cover with or as if with a hood.

hood ² American  

[hood, hood] / hʊd, hud /

noun

Slang.

1. a hoodlum.

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'hood ³ American  

[hood] / hʊd /

Or hood

noun

Slang.

1. a neighborhood, especially an urban neighborhood inhabited predominantly by African Americans of low socioeconomic status.

   It’s hard for these kids to break the cycle of poverty and get out of the 'hood.

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Hood ⁴ American  

[hood] / hʊd /

noun

1. John Bell, 1831–79, Confederate general in the U.S. Civil War.

2. Raymond Mathewson 1881–1934, U.S. architect.

3. Robin. Robin Hood.

4. Thomas, 1799–1845, English poet and humorist.

5. Mount, a volcanic peak in N Oregon, in the Cascade Range. 11,253 feet (3,430 meters).

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-hood ⁵ American  

1. a native English suffix denoting state, condition, character, nature, etc., or a body of persons of a particular character or class, formerly used in the formation of nouns: childhood; likelihood; knighthood; priesthood .

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hood ¹ British  

/ hʊd /

noun

1. a loose head covering either attached to a cloak or coat or made as a separate garment

2. something resembling this in shape or use

3. the US and Canadian name for bonnet

4. the folding roof of a convertible car

5. a hoodlike garment worn over an academic gown, indicating its wearer's degree and university

6. falconry a close-fitting cover, placed over the head and eyes of a falcon to keep it quiet when not hunting

7. biology a structure or marking, such as the fold of skin on the head of a cobra, that covers or appears to cover the head or some similar part

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verb

1. (tr) to cover or provide with or as if with a hood

Hood ² British  

/ hʊd /

noun

1. See Robin Hood

2. Samuel, 1st Viscount. 1724–1816, British admiral. He fought successfully against the French during the American Revolution and the French Revolutionary Wars

3. Thomas. 1799–1845, British poet and humorist: his work includes protest poetry, such as The Song of the Shirt (1843) and The Bridge of Sighs (1844)

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-hood ³ British  

suffix

1. indicating state or condition of being

   manhood

   adulthood

2. indicating a body of persons

   knighthood

   priesthood

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'hood ⁴ British  

/ hʊd /

noun

1. slang short for neighbourhood

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hood ⁵ British  

/ hʊd /

noun

1. slang short for hoodlum

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Usage

What does -hood mean? The suffix -hood is used to indicate “a state of being” or "a group of a particular characteristic or class." It is often used in a variety of technical and everyday terms. The form -hood comes from Old English hād, meaning “condition” or “rank.” Similar suffixes in Latin include -itās and -tūdō, both of which indicate a state of being and are the sources of the English suffixes -ity and -tude. Check out our entries for both suffixes to learn how frequently they appear.

Other Word Forms

Derived Forms

• hoodless
  adjective
• hoodlike
  adjective

Inflected Forms

Participles

• hooding
  present
• hooded
  past

Conjugated Forms

Present

• hood
  simple
• hoods
  simple
• have hooded
  perfect
• has hooded
  perfect
• am hooding
  progressive
• are hooding
  progressive
• is hooding
  progressive
• have been hooding
  perfect progressive
• has been hooding
  perfect progressive

Past

• hooded
  simple
• had hooded
  perfect
• was hooding
  progressive
• were hooding
  progressive
• had been hooding
  perfect progressive

Future

• will hood
  simple
• will have hooded
  perfect
• will be hooding
  progressive
• will have been hooding
  perfect progressive

Etymology

Origin of hood¹

First recorded before 900, in 1925–30 hood ¹ for def. 3 (an Americanism); Middle English hode, Old English hōd; cognate with Old Frisian hōde, Dutch hoed, German Hut hat

Origin of hood²

First recorded in 1925–30; by shortening

Origin of 'hood³

First recorded in 1965–70; African American Vernacular English; by shortening

Origin of -hood⁵

Middle English -hode, -hod, Old English -hād (cognate with German -heit ), special use of hād condition, state, order, quality, rank

Explanation

A hood is a protective covering. It could be a car hood protecting the engine or your car or it could be the hood on your coat protecting your noggin. Your favorite sweatshirt might have a hood, as well as your fur-lined winter coat and your insulated hood for scuba diving. Other things with a similar protective quality are also called hoods, like the metal vent cover over your stove, the cover on your car's engine, and the cap-like plant sections that cover vulnerable parts. One of the most famous hoods in literature is the red one worn by the main character in "Little Red Riding Hood."

Example Sentences

See Examples For:

hood 'hood Hood -hood hoods hooded hooding

All will be forgiven if Allen delivers, reverses all those decades of bad juju and hoists the Lombardi hood ornament into the sky.

From The Wall Street Journal ● Sep. 8, 2026

"Ultimately, these studies give us a glimpse under the hood of how these cells make decisions," she said.

From Science Daily ● Sep. 4, 2026

Goldthorpe attended LIV's most recent event in Bedminster, New York, and O'Neil said he was spending time "looking under the hood" of the league.

From BBC ● Aug. 21, 2026

The movie ends with Ricky Bobby speeding in a car without sponsors, a massive “ME” splashed on the hood.

From Salon ● Aug. 16, 2026

A rottie peeked her head out of his mantle hood.

From "The Marvellers" by Dhonielle Clayton

"But we make black music first and foremost, and all our records is 'hood first'."

From BBC ● Feb. 6, 2025

“Being from South Central, if you know ’hood politics, you know that a Rolex chain represents something,” she says.

From Los Angeles Times ● May 13, 2024

“I’m not even in the ghetto. I’m not in the ‘hood.

From Washington Times ● Dec. 27, 2023

"They Cloned Tyrone," directed and co-written by Juel Taylor, is a futuristic 'hood mystery based around a white and white-adjacent corporate agenda to control the Black community through fried chicken, drugs and perms.

From Salon ● Jul. 30, 2023

Ralph J. Bunche is the best school in the ’hood but every so often we get in a guy who doesn’t fit.

From "145th Street: Short Stories" by Walter Dean Myers

Marketing materials and the film’s notes for journalists announce that this is a Robin Hood origin story, which is curious in several ways.

From The Wall Street Journal ● Sep. 10, 2026

“We still had quite a bit of beach out there then, so it didn’t reach the boardwalk,” said Hood, 70.

From Los Angeles Times ● Sep. 9, 2026

Almost 100 municipalities in the U.S. have ended their Flock contracts in response to public outcry, including several in Texas, such as Bandera and Hood County.

From Salon ● Sep. 6, 2026

The Death of Robin Hood was released in the UK on 2 September.

From BBC ● Sep. 3, 2026

On Saturday morning, Robin Hood waits for me at the bottom of the stairs.

From "A Place at the Table" by Saadia Faruqi and Laura Shovan

When joined together, the h- of the -hood is put in immediate apposition with the s of the monks-.

From A Handbook of the English Language by R. G. (Robert Gordon) Latham

The thin aluminum sheets produced at the plant are later stamped into fenders, hoods and other exterior vehicle parts.

From The Wall Street Journal ● Jun. 10, 2026

Small tips, like the cut of hoods, or the excess arm space runners need in order to move, showed students how intricate even the simplest of pieces needed to be.

From Los Angeles Times ● May 11, 2026

Chief Executive Mary Barra’s first job as a co-op student was inspecting Pontiac hoods and fenders.

From The Wall Street Journal ● Mar. 24, 2026

Mr Clothier explains: "The methanogenic bacteria are gobbling up all the solids and generating loads of lovely methane, which we then catch in the hoods over the top."

From BBC ● Dec. 17, 2025

The poor spar-hawk, who had been getting more and more nervous for some time, blushed deeply and began faltering out a complicated oath about varvels, jesses and hoods.

From "The Once and Future King" by T. H. White

Countertenor Kangmin Justin Kim sang Alessandro with a hooded quality and too much vibrato; he sounded messy, especially in the big register jumps of his agitated Act 2 aria.

From The Wall Street Journal ● Jul. 28, 2026

On a chilly spring night, Caligiuri, wearing a hooded Adidas jacket and black sweatpants, stands in the center of a small soccer field on a bluff in Mission Viejo.

From Los Angeles Times ● Jun. 7, 2026

Shafer noticed he could wear a T-shirt while pruning trees instead of the usual hooded sweatshirt and knitted hat.

From Los Angeles Times ● May 19, 2026

Tall, a lawyer, was taken on May 2 in Bamako by hooded men, his family said.

From Barron's ● May 6, 2026

The attending nurse lifts the hooded veil and helps me up.

From "The Belles" by Dhonielle Clayton

Their accounts echo those of the Negra Francisca crew: cuffing and hooding by armed English-speakers before being turned over to a Salvadoran patrol craft, which took them to El Salvador.

From Los Angeles Times ● Jun. 15, 2026

The upper tends to address hooding and volume loss of the eyelid, while the lower focuses on puffiness and dark circles or hollowing under the eye, says Dr. Flora Levin, a Connecticut-based oculoplastic surgeon.

From The Wall Street Journal ● Jan. 1, 2026

She attended a Baptist pastor’s hooding ceremony, a public event for a Japanese sister city, and a luau held by a local nonprofit’s C.E.O.

From The New Yorker ● Aug. 12, 2019

The army general who ran UK military operations during the Iraq war has said he did not know about a 1972 ruling banning the hooding of detainees.

From BBC ● May 18, 2010

Jon went from one mews to another, hooding each occupant and carrying it to his tour van.

From "Frightful's Mountain" by Jean Craighead George

Related Words

• gangster
• goon
• hooligan
• punk
• tough
• tough guy