hazel means of a greenish-brown colour. (often used to refer to eye colour).
hazel is pronounced /ˈheɪzəl/.
Why “hazel” is a great word
Of a greenish-brown color, often used to describe eyes. From Middle English hasel, from Old English hæsl ('hazel, shrub'), from Proto-West Germanic *hasl, from Proto-Germanic *haslaz ('hazel'), from Proto-Indo-European *kóslos ('hazel'). Unlike 'brown,' which is steady and earthbound, or 'amber,' which is a clear, captured honey-gold, hazel is irreducibly composite—neither one thing nor another, but both at once. It is the dappled light in a hazel coppice, the mutable hue of a shallow riverbed seen through moving water, and the cat's eye catching lamplight at midnight. The word, like the shrub's wood preferred for divining rods, finds what cannot be directly seen.
Etymology
From Middle English hasel, from Old English hæsl (“hazel, shrub”), from Proto-West Germanic *hasl, from Proto-Germanic *haslaz (“hazel”), from Proto-Indo-European *kóslos (“hazel”). Cognates Cognate with Yola hawlse (“hazel”), Dutch hazel, hazelaar (“hazel”), German Hasel (“hazel”), Vilamovian hozuł (“hazel”), Danish, Norwegian Bokmål, and Swedish hassel (“hazel”), Icelandic hesli (“hazel”), Norwegian Nynorsk hasl, hassel (“hazel”); also Latin corulus, corylus (“hazel”), Irish call, coll (“hazel”), Manx coull (“hazel”), Scottish Gaelic coll (“hazel”), Welsh cyll (“hazel trees”).
adj
- Of a greenish-brown colour. (often used to refer to eye colour)e.g.“As she grew up and her hazel eyes became hazeler and her dark hair darker and her white skin whiter, and her form a sigh on every boy’s lips, she concentrated on one dream.” — 1956 January 7, James L. Collings, “Syndicates: Oh Marie! Whatta Gal and Whatta Reporter”, in Robert U[tting] Brown, editor, Editor & Publisher, volume 89, number 1, New York, N.Y.: Editor & Publisher
name
- A female given name from English from the plant or colour hazel. Popular in the U.S. at the turn of the 20th century.
- A topographic surname from Middle English for someone who lived near a hazel tree.
- A place in the United States:; A minor city in Calloway County, Kentucky.
- A place in the United States:; A town in Hamlin County, South Dakota.
- A place in the United States:; An unincorporated community in Snohomish County, Washington.
- A place in the United States:; An unincorporated community in Wetzel County, West Virginia.
noun
- A tree or shrub of the genus Corylus, bearing edible nuts called hazelnuts or filberts.e.g.“The green turf was velvet underfoot. The blackbirds fluted in the hazels there.” — 1895, S. R. Crockett, A Cry Across the Black Water:
- The nut of the hazel tree.
- The wood of a hazelnut tree.
- A greenish-brown colour, the colour of a ripe hazelnut.
- Freestone.
Definitions & examples from Wiktionary (CC BY-SA 3.0).
Words closest in meaning
By meaning, not spelling — each word's AI semantic fingerprint, nearest first.
- hazelly 75% match — Of the light brown colour of the hazelnut. vs hazel →
- avellaneous 69% match — Of a hazel color. vs hazel →
- cobnut 61% match — A nut of a common hazel (Corylus avellana); hazelnut. vs hazel →
- hazelnutty 61% match — Resembling or characteristic of hazelnuts. vs hazel →
- avellano 53% match — Synonym of Chilean hazelnut (“Gevuina avellana”). vs hazel →
- chestnut 52% match — An edible nut (technically a fruit) of the Spanish chestnut or sweet chestnut tree (Castanea sativa); also (chiefly preceded by a descriptive word), a nut from a related shrub or tree; or a similar nut from an unrelated plant. vs hazel →
- chestnutlike 49% match — Resembling or characteristic of a chestnut. vs hazel →
- tawny 49% match — Of a light brown to brownish orange colour; orangey brown tinged with gold. vs hazel →