Suffix · forms nouns
Names a stage of life, a state or a community: child becomes childhood.
Written by Bryan López, English teacher · Updated
The suffix -hood creates nouns that name stages of life, human states or conditions, and in some cases communities or groups. From "child" you get "childhood"; from "adult" you get "adulthood"; from "neighbor" you get "neighborhood". Unlike -ness or -tion, -hood is not freely productive: you cannot add it to any word. There is a fixed set of -hood words that should be learned as established vocabulary.
Three clear groups: 1. Life stages: childhood, adulthood, manhood, womanhood, parenthood, boyhood, girlhood. 2. States or conditions: falsehood, likelihood, brotherhood, sisterhood. 3. Communities or roles: neighborhood, priesthood, knighthood. In everyday speech, the most frequent ones are childhood, adulthood, neighborhood and parenthood.
The word "hood" in English literally means a covering for the head, or informally "neighbourhood" (from hip-hop culture). The suffix -hood has nothing to do with a physical hood: it comes from Old English and means "state" or "condition". It is a historical coincidence that the free word and the suffix look identical.
-hood joins a limited set of nouns. No special spelling rules.
Unlike -ness or -ment, -hood is a closed-class suffix: you cannot add it freely to new words. -hood words are fixed vocabulary to be learned individually. If you are unsure whether a -hood word exists, it probably does not.
-hood/hʊd/ · rhymes with 'good'
Tap the button to hear how the ending sounds. Each word in the table has its own audio.
-hood is not productive. You cannot add it to any adjective. It only works with a closed set of words.
Spelling varies by dialect: "neighborhood" in American English, "neighbourhood" in British English.
For "childish behaviour" use "childish" (adjective). "childhood" is the life stage, not the behaviour.
A trick to remember it
The most useful everyday -hood words are childhood, adulthood, neighborhood and parenthood. Learn them as fixed vocabulary, not as a rule for building new words.
Exercise 1 · Form the word
Exercise 2 · Pick the right one
What does "neighborhood" mean?
Exercise 3 · Pick the right one
Can you say "happyhood" to mean happiness?
The suffix -hood names a stage of life, a state or a community: child becomes childhood. In Spanish it usually maps to -ez / -dad / stage of life.
The ending -hood is pronounced /hʊd/ · rhymes with 'good'. For example, "childhood".
"child" becomes "childhood". It is a typical example of the -hood suffix.
-tion, -ness, -ful, -ly, -able... every ending you need to understand thousands of words at once.