What does hail mean?
Word: Hail
Part of Speech: Verb
Meaning: Hail means to call out or wave to get someone's attention, as when you hail a taxi. It can also mean to praise someone loudly. As a noun, hail is small balls of ice that fall from storm clouds.
Synonyms: call, signal, praise
Antonyms: ignore
Sounds like: hale (healthy and strong, often said of old people (hale and hearty))
How do you spell hail?
Syllables: hail
Tricky part: The long a sound is spelt ai, as in rain and mail. Children who hear the word often write hale, which is a different word.
Watch out for: hial, haill, hael
Memory tip: Hail falls with rain, and both rain and hail use ai.
Idioms and Phrases
- within hailing distance: close enough to call out to Example: "The boat came within hailing distance of the shore, so we shouted to the boatman."
Hail in a sentence
Example 1: Papa raised his hand to hail a cab outside the station.
Example 2: The crowd hailed the young bowler after she took five wickets.
Example 3: Hail rattled on the tin roof for ten minutes during the storm.
Fun Fact
Hailstones grow in layers while strong winds toss them up and down inside a storm cloud, so a hailstone cut in half can show rings like an onion.
Practise the CREST Way
Word Connection
Choose the synonym of the word:
hail
a) whisper
b) scold
c) greet
d) chase
Show answer
c) greet. When you hail someone, you call out to greet them or get their attention.
Word Makeup
Choose the correctly spelt compound word:
a) hailstorm
b) snowflaik
c) raincote
d) sunbeem
Show answer
a) hailstorm. Hail and storm stay whole in hailstorm; raincoat, snowflake and sunbeam are the proper forms of the other three.
Word Cookie
Find the misspelt word in the sentence:
Grandpa stood at the edge of the road to hail a pasing taxi.
a) edge
b) pasing
c) hail
d) taxi
Show answer
b) pasing. Passing keeps the double s of pass.
Mingle-Mangle
Form a meaningful word from the jumbled letters:
liha
a) heal
b) hail
c) halo
d) hair
Show answer
b) hail. Hair needs an r, heal an e and halo an o, so these four letters make hail.
Multiple Choice Questions
1. Hail is most likely to damage which of these?
a) a pipe buried underground
b) a farmer's ripening wheat
c) fish deep in a lake
d) a book kept in a cupboard
Show answer
b) a farmer's ripening wheat
2. In which sentence does hail mean to call out to someone?
a) We hailed the boatman from the bank.
b) The hail melted on the grass.
c) A hail of stones hit the roof.
d) Hail broke the greenhouse glass.
Show answer
a) We hailed the boatman from the bank.
