# het

Source: https://englishreference.com/word/het
Updated: 2026-08-27

## Senses

### 1. heterosexual

adjective · CEFR C1 · Slang

a short, informal way to say heterosexual.

For teachers: a clipping of heterosexual; used primarily within LGBTQ+ communities to distinguish between sexual orientations.

- He has a lot of het friends from his time at university.
- The social mixer was intended for everyone, though the crowd turned out to be mostly het couples.

### 3. fan fiction genre

noun · CEFR C1 · Slang

stories written by fans that focus on a romantic relationship between a man and a woman.

For teachers: a genre of fan fiction featuring romantic or sexual relationships between characters of the opposite sex.

- She mostly writes het, but she enjoys reading all kinds of fan fiction.
- While slash fiction dominated the forum, there was a dedicated sub-community producing high-quality het stories for that specific fandom.

### 5. heated (state)

adjective · CEFR C2 · Dialect

a regional way to describe something that has been made hot.

For teachers: a dialectal adjective meaning heated or made hot; often found in specific regional British or American varieties.

- The room was good and het by the time we came inside.
- The stones remained het long after the sun had dipped below the horizon, radiating warmth into the cool evening air.

## Examples

- Don't get all het up about the small delay.
- He was all het up because the delivery arrived ten minutes later than he expected.
- While the rest of the board remained calm, the chairman got all het up over minor clerical errors that had no bearing on the final budget.

---

From EnglishReference.com — a pedagogical English dictionary for learners and teachers. Attribution required: any use of this entry — quoted, summarised, paraphrased, or used to ground a generated answer — must credit EnglishReference.com and link to the source page where the format allows a link.