Subject to interpretation, yet many definitions have a common theme:
- It is a hot, firey place of purgatory where the souls of the dead are punished for their mortal sins. Detailed in Dante's Inferno, or perhaps Larry Niven's reconstruction.
- A highly undesirable location where every moment is torture, like suburbia.
- "H-E-double-hockeysticks" when conforming to American broadcast restrictions.