hen — meaning in English

English meaning

• chicken noun A common domesticated bird raised for its eggs and meat.
• hen noun An adult female chicken, especially one kept for laying eggs.
• them pron The objective form of "they" — used for people, animals, or things already mentioned, as the object of a verb or preposition.
• they pron Used to refer to a group of people or things already mentioned.

Senses

hen is used for these senses in English:

• chicken (uncountable) The meat from this bird eaten as food.
• chicken (archaic) The young of any bird; a chick.
• hen A female chicken (Gallus gallus), particularly a sexually mature one kept for her eggs.
• hen A female of other bird species, particularly a sexually mature female fowl.
• they (the third-person singular nominative, occasionally, proscribed) A single person, previously mentioned, whose gender is unknown, irrelevant, or (since 20th c.) non-binary. [since 14th c.]

chicken — full definition

1. noun A common domesticated bird raised for its eggs and meat.
2. noun The meat of this bird, eaten as food.
3. noun (informal) A cowardly person.
4. adj (informal) Cowardly; afraid to do something.
5. verb (informal, usually with "out") To back out of something through fear.

hen — full definition

1. noun An adult female chicken, especially one kept for laying eggs.
2. noun An adult female of various other bird species.
3. noun A casual, often affectionate term for a woman, especially in British and Scottish speech.

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