"hell of a" meaning in English

See hell of a in All languages combined, or Wiktionary

Adjective

IPA: /ˈhɛləvə/
Head templates: {{en-adj|-}} hell of a (not comparable)
  1. (colloquial or vulgar) Intensifier; indicates that someone or something is especially good, bad, difficult, etc. Tags: not-comparable Derived forms: heck of a [euphemistic], hella, helluva [contraction] Related terms: big old Translations (intensifier: especially (good, bad, difficult etc.)): ⁧חֲתִיכַת⁩ (ḥatichát) (Hebrew), nem semmi (Hungarian)
    Sense id: en-hell_of_a-en-adj-X4B-VEFh

Alternative forms

Download JSON data for hell of a meaning in English (1.6kB)

{
  "head_templates": [
    {
      "args": {
        "1": "-"
      },
      "expansion": "hell of a (not comparable)",
      "name": "en-adj"
    }
  ],
  "lang": "English",
  "lang_code": "en",
  "pos": "adj",
  "senses": [
    {
      "categories": [],
      "derived": [
        {
          "tags": [
            "euphemistic"
          ],
          "word": "heck of a"
        },
        {
          "word": "hella"
        },
        {
          "tags": [
            "contraction"
          ],
          "word": "helluva"
        }
      ],
      "examples": [
        {
          "text": "Well done! That's a hell of an achievement!",
          "type": "example"
        },
        {
          "text": "She had a hell of a time trying to open the jar. In the end she gave up.",
          "type": "example"
        },
        {
          "text": "Where were you? / I got lost in the woods. / Wow! Hell of a place to get lost!",
          "type": "example"
        },
        {
          "ref": "2007, “One Hell of a Party”, in Pocket Symphony, performed by Air ft. Jarvis Cocker",
          "text": "Yeah, this was one hell of a party / Nobody ever got to bed / But the morning after's killing me / And I have to rest my head",
          "type": "quotation"
        }
      ],
      "glosses": [
        "Intensifier; indicates that someone or something is especially good, bad, difficult, etc."
      ],
      "id": "en-hell_of_a-en-adj-X4B-VEFh",
      "qualifier": "colloquial or vulgar",
      "raw_glosses": [
        "(colloquial or vulgar) Intensifier; indicates that someone or something is especially good, bad, difficult, etc."
      ],
      "related": [
        {
          "word": "big old"
        }
      ],
      "tags": [
        "not-comparable"
      ],
      "translations": [
        {
          "code": "he",
          "lang": "Hebrew",
          "roman": "ḥatichát",
          "sense": "intensifier: especially (good, bad, difficult etc.)",
          "word": "⁧חֲתִיכַת⁩"
        },
        {
          "code": "hu",
          "lang": "Hungarian",
          "sense": "intensifier: especially (good, bad, difficult etc.)",
          "word": "nem semmi"
        }
      ]
    }
  ],
  "sounds": [
    {
      "ipa": "/ˈhɛləvə/"
    }
  ],
  "word": "hell of a"
}
{
  "derived": [
    {
      "tags": [
        "euphemistic"
      ],
      "word": "heck of a"
    },
    {
      "word": "hella"
    },
    {
      "tags": [
        "contraction"
      ],
      "word": "helluva"
    }
  ],
  "head_templates": [
    {
      "args": {
        "1": "-"
      },
      "expansion": "hell of a (not comparable)",
      "name": "en-adj"
    }
  ],
  "lang": "English",
  "lang_code": "en",
  "pos": "adj",
  "related": [
    {
      "word": "big old"
    }
  ],
  "senses": [
    {
      "categories": [
        "English adjectives",
        "English colloquialisms",
        "English lemmas",
        "English multiword terms",
        "English terms with IPA pronunciation",
        "English terms with quotations",
        "English terms with usage examples",
        "English uncomparable adjectives",
        "English vulgarities"
      ],
      "examples": [
        {
          "text": "Well done! That's a hell of an achievement!",
          "type": "example"
        },
        {
          "text": "She had a hell of a time trying to open the jar. In the end she gave up.",
          "type": "example"
        },
        {
          "text": "Where were you? / I got lost in the woods. / Wow! Hell of a place to get lost!",
          "type": "example"
        },
        {
          "ref": "2007, “One Hell of a Party”, in Pocket Symphony, performed by Air ft. Jarvis Cocker",
          "text": "Yeah, this was one hell of a party / Nobody ever got to bed / But the morning after's killing me / And I have to rest my head",
          "type": "quotation"
        }
      ],
      "glosses": [
        "Intensifier; indicates that someone or something is especially good, bad, difficult, etc."
      ],
      "qualifier": "colloquial or vulgar",
      "raw_glosses": [
        "(colloquial or vulgar) Intensifier; indicates that someone or something is especially good, bad, difficult, etc."
      ],
      "tags": [
        "not-comparable"
      ]
    }
  ],
  "sounds": [
    {
      "ipa": "/ˈhɛləvə/"
    }
  ],
  "translations": [
    {
      "code": "he",
      "lang": "Hebrew",
      "roman": "ḥatichát",
      "sense": "intensifier: especially (good, bad, difficult etc.)",
      "word": "⁧חֲתִיכַת⁩"
    },
    {
      "code": "hu",
      "lang": "Hungarian",
      "sense": "intensifier: especially (good, bad, difficult etc.)",
      "word": "nem semmi"
    }
  ],
  "word": "hell of a"
}

This page is a part of the kaikki.org machine-readable English dictionary. This dictionary is based on structured data extracted on 2024-03-12 from the enwiktionary dump dated 2024-03-01 using wiktextract (68773ab and 5f6ddbb). The data shown on this site has been post-processed and various details (e.g., extra categories) removed, some information disambiguated, and additional data merged from other sources. See the raw data download page for the unprocessed wiktextract data.

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