hover
Americanverb (used without object)
-
hovers,
present (3rd person singular)
-
hovered,
past participle, past
-
hovering
present participle
-
to hang fluttering or suspended in the air.
The helicopter hovered over the building.
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to keep lingering about; wait near at hand.
-
to remain in an uncertain or irresolute state; waver.
to hover between life and death.
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Computers. to place a pointer over an area of a screen without clicking or tapping, as with a mouse or stylus.
Hover over the icon to reveal more information.
verb (used with object)
-
hovers,
present (3rd person singular)
-
hovered,
past participle, past
-
hovering
present participle
-
to cause to hover.
-
Computers. to place (a pointer) over an area of a screen without clicking or tapping.
noun
verb
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(intr) to remain suspended in one place
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(intr) (of certain birds, esp hawks) to remain in one place in the air by rapidly beating the wings
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(intr) to linger uncertainly in a nervous or solicitous way
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(intr) to be in a state of indecision
she was hovering between the two suitors
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(tr) computing to hold (the mouse pointer) over a defined area on a web page without clicking, in order to cause a menu, information box, etc to appear
noun
Synonym Usage
See fly 2 .
Other Word Forms
Derived Forms
Inflected Forms
Participles
Conjugated Forms
Present
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hoversimple
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hoverssimple
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have hoveredperfect
-
has hoveredperfect
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am hoveringprogressive
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are hoveringprogressive
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is hoveringprogressive
-
have been hoveringperfect progressive
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has been hoveringperfect progressive
Past
-
hoveredsimple
-
had hoveredperfect
-
was hoveringprogressive
-
were hoveringprogressive
-
had been hoveringperfect progressive
Future
Etymology
Origin of hover
First recorded in 1350–1400; Middle English hoveren, frequentative of hoven “to hover,” of obscure origin
Explanation
A hover craft flies low over the ground or water — it hovers. Hover can also mean waver. Think of someone that can’t decide exactly where to land. To help remember the meaning of hover, think of it as containing the preposition over: things that hover hang over. A temperature can hover around forty degrees, a grade in a class can hover around a B.
Vocabulary lists containing hover
"Diary of a Wimpy Kid" by Jeff Kinney
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"Of Mice and Men"
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"The Great Gatsby," Chapter 1 Vocabulary
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Example Sentences
Examples are provided to illustrate real-world usage of words in context. Any opinions expressed do not reflect the views of Dictionary.com.
See Examples For:
The drones hover over the farmers, broadcasting warnings such as "it's hot, you need to go inside" to remind them to take breaks and cool down.
From BBC ● Aug. 7, 2026
The currency continues to hover around 163.70 to the dollar.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Jul. 28, 2026
A scream, said county officials, is considered operational noise, and decibel levels should hover somewhere around 50 dBa during peak hours.
From Los Angeles Times ● Jul. 24, 2026
The overall pace of inflation sits roughly in line with the Bank of Canada’s most recent forecast for it to hover around 3% near term before easing gradually toward its 2% target.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Jun. 22, 2026
I enjoyed not having Dad hover over me, but I did not tell him so.
From "The View From Saturday" by E.L. Konigsburg
Major estimates that the average net worth among his California clients hovers near $250 million — a million of which they’ll likely end up spending to get another passport.
From Los Angeles Times ● Aug. 13, 2026
The rate for the former hovers at around 5.8% versus 6.4% for the latter.
From MarketWatch ● Jul. 7, 2026
The national median home price hovers above $400,000.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Jul. 5, 2026
Today, Figma’s market cap hovers around $9.5 billion.
From Barron's ● Jun. 17, 2026
The option New Memory World hovers over them.
From "Warcross" by Marie Lu
But ardent supporters of Mangione flocked to the Manhattan courthouse to show their support amid heavy security as a helicopter hovered overhead.
From Barron's ● Aug. 14, 2026
They said the most recent tax filing will not be available until next year, but when it is, it will reflect Adelkoff’s historical base salary, which has hovered around $405,000.
From Los Angeles Times ● Aug. 6, 2026
Graduate unemployment has hovered around the 35-40% level for the last 25 years.
From BBC ● Aug. 3, 2026
Searching for direction, I found guidance in professor and documentary filmmaker Carolyn Strachan, whose average RateMyProfessor score hovered somewhere around 2.1.
From Salon ● Jul. 24, 2026
She ended up using her chopsticks to pluck four sushi rolls from the air when Chef Oshiro's sushi belt hovered over the table.
From "The Marvellers" by Dhonielle Clayton
With morning temperatures in rural areas hovering around 3C, and perhaps only 6-9C in some bigger cities, you would think autumn was just around the corner.
From BBC ● Aug. 22, 2026
The screen looked almost like a cheerful kitchen-table flat-lay: products arranged over a wood-grain background, hovering around a GoPuff bag as though someone had just come home and emptied the evening’s provisions onto the table.
From Salon ● Aug. 20, 2026
With long-term Treasury yields hovering at multidecade highs, traders have begun asking the uncomfortable question: How much will the U.S. need to pay to convince the world to keep lending it money?
From MarketWatch ● Aug. 18, 2026
Loans within publicly traded business-development companies, which are marketed to individual investors, that have been materially modified after origination have been hovering near their highest levels in at least a decade.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Aug. 11, 2026
William Loughton Smith pointed up to the antislavery advocates who had stacked the galleries “like evil spirits hovering over our heads.”
From "Founding Brothers: The Revolutionary Generation" by Joseph J. Ellis
Definitions and idiom definitions from Dictionary.com Unabridged, based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2023
Idioms from The American Heritage® Idioms Dictionary copyright © 2002, 2001, 1995 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company.
