Meaning & use
hinny
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Meanings
nouncountabletechnical
An animal produced by breeding a male horse with a female donkey, usually smaller than a mule.
Grammar: Plural is hinnies; it is a rare word outside farming and animal science.
Patterns
- a hinny and a mule
The farmer explained that the animal was a hinny, not a mule.
A hinny usually has shorter ears than a mule.
Breeders find hinnies far less common than mules.
nouncountableBritishregionalinformal
A friendly term of address for a woman or child, used in parts of northern England.
Grammar: Spelled hinny or hinnie; used as a warm form of address.
Patterns
- Come here, hinny
Come and sit down, hinny, the tea's ready.
The shopkeeper smiled and said, "Mind the step, hinny."
My gran always called me hinny.
Word forms
| plural | hinnies |
|---|
Common combinations
- breed a hinny
- It is hard to breed a hinny because the mare often rejects the foal.
- hinny or mule
- Visitors often cannot tell a hinny or mule apart.
- female hinny
- The female hinny was gentle with the children.
- hinny foal
- A hinny foal was born at the sanctuary this week.
Synonyms and how they differ
Word family
Commonly confused: hinny or mule? hinny or jenny?
hinny vs mule
A mule is the offspring of a male donkey and a female horse, so its parents are the reverse of a hinny's.
hinny vs jenny
A jenny is a female donkey, which is the mother of a hinny, not the animal itself.
Practice
If a stallion mates with a female donkey, the offspring is called a ___.
Choose one answer.
A hinny has a horse father and a donkey mother. A mule is the reverse cross, which is the tempting wrong choice.
Make it your own
Write a sentence using “hinny”, then check it and compare it with the examples above.