What does hoary mean?
Hoary is a formal adjective most commonly used for hair or a beard that has become gray or white with age. It can also describe anything extremely old, long-used, antiquated, or shaped by the passage of time, often with the implication that the thing has endured much change. For example, a writer might call an institution hoary, suggesting both its great age and its possible obsolescence. The word carries mixed associations: it may sound dignified when applied to an experienced person or venerable tradition, but disparaging when applied to an outdated idea or worn-out practice. A rarer literary sense describes something covered in hoarfrost. Hoary is especially effective in descriptions of elderly figures, old buildings, and customs that have survived from earlier generations. Its old English ancestry links it with the idea of grayness and whiteness, while its modern figurative uses extend that physical impression into the realm of age, experience, and decay.
adjectiveGray or white with age, especially as applied to hair or a beard. By extension, it means old, antiquated, or worn with time.
- Gray or white with age, especially hair or a beard.
- Old, timeworn, antiquated, or belonging to a much earlier period.
- Covered or whitened with hoarfrost; now chiefly literary or archaic.
"A hoary beard framed the old sailor's weathered face."
"The professor's hoary beard and patient manner suggested decades of experience."
"The critic dismissed the ideology as a hoary relic of an earlier age."
Hoary carries winter in its sound and history: the same old English root also gave us hoarfrost.
Reviewed by Deb Chak, Editor. AI-assisted content curated by RJS Tech Solutions LLP.
Where does hoary come from?
Hoary comes from an Old English root associated with gray or white and with age, reflected in forms meaning gray, gray-haired, or aged. The modern English adjective was established by the early modern period through the related word hoar and adjectival formation. English also developed hoarfrost from the same gray-white notion, while the noun hoariness comes directly from the modern adjective.
Related word forms
How hoary is actually used
Hoary is literary and relatively formal. It can be respectfully approving when describing age or long experience, but it can also imply that something is outdated, overused, or fit only for the past.
Easily confused with hoary
Hoary describes something gray or white with age or old and timeworn, whereas hoar can mean frost or a gray-white coating of ice.