haystack

noun

hay·​stack ˈhā-ˌstak 

1

: a stack of hay

2

: a vertical standing wave in turbulent river waters

Examples of haystack in a Sentence

Recent Examples on the Web

Louis worked all day reinforcing the fence around the haystack. — Dolores Brown, Outdoor Life, 17 June 2026

But Unikowsky maintains that to find a needle in the Google haystack, Google had to sift through hundreds of millions of accounts. — Nina Totenberg, NPR, 27 Apr. 2026

Such a search through Google’s location data begins with a haystack of hundreds of millions of phones and enables the police to filter out a few that could lead to a suspect. — Bart Jansen, USA Today, 26 Apr. 2026

After all, there are 40,000 active podcasts, culling a top ten from that massive list is essentially needle meet haystack. — Frank Racioppi, Forbes.com, 18 May 2026

Word History

First Known Use

15th century, in the meaning defined at sense 1

Phrases Containing haystack

• a needle in a haystack

Rhymes for haystack

• aback
• attack
• backpack
• backtrack
• bareback
• blackjack
• brownback
• buyback
• callback
• cognac
• comeback
• cutback

Kids Definition

haystack

noun

hay·​stack -ˌstak 

: a stack of hay