hair
Other forms: hairs
Hair is the strands of fiber that grow from a person's skin, especially on the scalp. Most mammals, from dogs to bears to mice, also have hair.
Your hair might be straight or curly, brown or gray or dark red. Even people with no hair on their heads have body hair, short, fine hairs that grow on arms and legs. Cats have coats that vary too, ranging from hairless to long, silky hair. Even some plants can be described as having hair. Colloquially, people "split hairs," or argue about unimportant things, or tell a "hair-raising" tale, or a spooky story that gives you chills.
Definitions of hair
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a covering for the body (or parts of it) consisting of a dense growth of threadlike structures (as on the human head); helps to prevent heat loss“he combed his hair”“each hair consists of layers of dead keratinized cells”
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types:
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coat, pelage
growth of hair or wool or fur covering the body of an animal
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guard hair
coarse hairs that form the outer fur and protect the underfur of certain mammals
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mane
long coarse hair growing from the crest of the animal's neck
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forelock, foretop
a lock of a horse's mane that grows forward between the ears
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beard
hairy growth on or near the face of certain mammals
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body hair
short hair growing over a person's body
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down, pile
fine soft dense hair (as the fine short hair of cattle or deer or the wool of sheep or the undercoat of certain dogs)
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head of hair, mane
growth of hair covering the scalp of a human being
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cowlick
a tuft of hair that grows in a different direction from the rest of the hair and usually will not lie flat
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coif, coiffure, hair style, hairdo, hairstyle
the arrangement of the hair (especially a woman's hair)
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curl, lock, ringlet, whorl
a strand or cluster of hair
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facial hair
hair on the face (especially on the face of a man)
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brow, eyebrow, supercilium
the arch of hair above each eye
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cilium, eyelash, lash
any of the short curved hairs that grow from the edges of the eyelids
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fur
dense coat of fine silky hairs on mammals (e.g., cat or seal or weasel)
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fleece, wool
outer coat of especially sheep and yaks
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encolure
the mane of a horse
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lanugo
the fine downy hair covering a human fetus; normally shed during the ninth month of gestation
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beehive
a hairdo resembling a beehive
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bouffant
a woman's hairstyle in which the hair gives a puffy appearance
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haircut
the style in which hair has been cut
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sausage curl
a fat sausage-shaped curl
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forelock
a lock of hair growing (or falling) over the forehead
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crimp
a lock of hair that has been artificially waved or curled
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dreadlock
one of many long thin braids of hair radiating from the scalp; popularized by Rastafarians
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Afro, Afro hairdo
a rounded thickly curled hairdo
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bang, fringe
a border of hair that is cut short and hangs across the forehead
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bob
a hair style for women and children; a short haircut all around
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wave
a hairdo that creates undulations in the hair
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braid, plait, tress, twist
a hairdo formed by braiding or twisting the hair
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chignon
a roll of hair worn at the nape of the neck
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marcel
a hairdo characterized by deep regular waves that are made by a heated curling iron
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pageboy
a smooth hair style with the ends of the hair curled inward
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pompadour
a hair style in which the front hair is swept up from the forehead
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ponytail
a hair style that draws the hair back so that it hangs down in back of the head like a pony's tail
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roach
a roll of hair brushed back from the forehead
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scalp lock
a long tuft of hair left on top of the shaven head
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thatch
hair resembling thatched roofing material
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beard, face fungus, whiskers
the hair growing on the lower part of a man's face
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moustache, mustache
an unshaved growth of hair on the upper lip
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burnside, mutton chop, side-whiskers, sideburn
facial hair that has grown down the side of a man's face in front of the ears (especially when the rest of the beard is shaved off)
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mullet
a hairstyle in which the hair is left long at the back but cut short on the top and sides
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tress
(usually plural) a long lock of hair
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type of:
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body covering
any covering for the body or a body part
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any of the cylindrical filaments characteristically growing from the epidermis of a mammal“there is a hair in my soup”
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synonyms:
pilus
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types:
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ingrown hair
a hair that does not emerge from the follicle but remains embedded in the skin (usually causing inflammation)
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ingrown hair
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filamentous hairlike growth on a plant
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types:
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stinging hair
a multicellular hair in plants like the stinging nettle that expels an irritating fluid
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beard
a tuft or growth of hairs or bristles on certain plants such as iris or grasses
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awn
slender bristlelike appendage found on the bracts of grasses
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type of:
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enation, plant process
a natural projection or outgrowth from a plant body or organ
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stinging hair
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cloth woven from horsehair or camelhair; used for upholstery or stiffening in garments
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a filamentous projection or process on an organism
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types:
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bristle
a stiff hair
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sensory hair, vibrissa, whisker
a long stiff hair growing from the snout or brow of most mammals as e.g. a cat
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seta
a stiff hair or bristle
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pilus
hairlike structure especially on the surface of a cell or microorganism
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chaeta
a stiff chitinous seta or bristle especially of an annelid worm
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a very small distance or space“they escaped by a hair's-breadth”
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synonyms:
hair's-breadth, hairsbreadth, whisker
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type of:
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small indefinite amount, small indefinite quantity
an indefinite quantity that is below average size or magnitude
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small indefinite amount, small indefinite quantity
Pronunciation
US
/hɛər/
UK
/hɛ/
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