hence

ADV · English

Experimental / limited support

Experimental coverage — measured below Partial on the number of recorded words, definitions, translations, word forms and pronunciation. Treat entries as evidence to check; meanings may be incomplete.

1. Definition: From here, from this place, away.

   archaic · not-comparable

   No translation has been attempted for this sense.

   • I'm going hence, because you have insulted me. Usage example — not an attested quotation.
   • Get thee hence, Satan! Usage example — not an attested quotation.
   • O Gertrude, come away: / The sun no ſooner ſhall the Mountaines touch, / But we will ſhip him hence, c. 1599–1602 (date written), William Shakespeare, “The Tragedie of Hamlet, Prince of Denmarke”, in Mr. William Shakespeares Comedies, Histories, & Tragedies […] (First Folio), London: […] Isaac Iaggard, and Ed[ward] Blount, published 1623, →OCLC, [Act IV, scene i], page 272, column 1:
   • Ye men of Galilee! / Why stand ye looking up to heaven, where Him ye ne’er may see, / Neither ascending hence, nor returning hither again? 1849, Arthur Hugh Clough, Easter Day (Naples, 1849):
   • `Now leave me,' she said, `and sleep if ye may. I must watch and think, for to-morrow night we go hence, and the time is long since I trod the path that we must follow.' 1886 October – 1887 January, H[enry] Rider Haggard, She: A History of Adventure, London: Longmans, Green, and Co., published 1887, →OCLC:

2. Definition: From the living or from this world.

   archaic · figuratively · not-comparable

   No translation has been attempted for this sense.

   • After a long battle, my poor daughter was taken hence. Usage example — not an attested quotation.

3. Definition: In the future from now.

   not-comparable

   No translation has been attempted for this sense.

   • A year hence it will be forgotten. Usage example — not an attested quotation.
   • […]And now farewell / Till half an hour hence. 1610–1611 (date written), William Shakespeare, “The Tempest”, in Mr. William Shakespeares Comedies, Histories, & Tragedies […] (First Folio), London: […] Isaac Iaggard, and Ed[ward] Blount, published 1623, →OCLC, [Act III, scene i]:
   • There may be an occasion to do so two years hence. 2024, Marshall H. Tanick, “Diversity on the bench should not only be about gender and race”, in MinnPost:

4. Definition: As a result; therefore, for this reason.

   conjunctive · not-comparable

   No translation has been attempted for this sense.

   • I shall go to Japan and hence will not be here in time for the party. Usage example — not an attested quotation.
   • The purse is handmade and hence very expensive. Usage example — not an attested quotation.
   • Hence that general is skillful in attack whose opponent does not know what to defend; and he is skillful in defense whose opponent does not know what to attack. Usage example — not an attested quotation. 1910, Sun Tzu, Lionel Giles (translator), The Art of War, Section VI: Weak Points and Strong, 8
   • Hence it comes that all armed Prophets have been victorious, and all unarmed Prophets have been destroyed. 1910, [1513], Niccolò Machiavelli, chapter VI, in Ninian Hill Thomson, transl., The Prince:
   • That hence arises the peculiar Unhappiness of that Business, which other Callings are no way liable to; 1731 May 27, Benjamin Franklin, “Apology for Printers”, in The Pennsylvania Gazette:

No paradigm has been compiled for this word yet.

Etymology: A later Middle English spelling, retaining the voiceless -s, of hennes (henne + adverbial genitive ending -s), from Old English heonan (“away", "hence”), from a Proto-West Germanic *hin-, from Proto-Germanic *hiz, and Proto-Germanic *-anē. Cognate with Old Saxon hinan, Old High German hinnan (German hinnen), Dutch heen, Swedish hän. Related to Old English her (“here”).

No related word is recorded for this word.