Standard Lemma guide
Definitions and examples are grouped by meaning. Pronunciation, history, word forms, translations, descendants, synonyms, antonyms, derived terms, and related words appear whenever the source provides them.
Sound
Each Play button uses your device's default local English voice, or a natural local fallback. The selected voice name appears after playback. This is synthesized speech, not a source recording.
name
A surname of Scottish and northern English origin for a bell ringer, bellmaker, or from someone who lived "at the Bell (inn)."
Definition source: English Wiktionary via Wiktextract
Usage: countable, uncountable
No example sentence was provided for this meaning.
Synonyms: none provided
Antonyms: none provided
name
The Bell telephone company (after Alexander Graham Bell, the inventor of the telephone.)
Definition source: English Wiktionary via Wiktextract
Usage: countable, uncountable
No example sentence was provided for this meaning.
Synonyms: none provided
Antonyms: none provided
name
A male given name transferred from the surname, of occasional usage.
Definition source: English Wiktionary via Wiktextract
Usage: countable, uncountable
No example sentence was provided for this meaning.
Synonyms: none provided
Antonyms: none provided
name
A female given name, variant of Belle; mostly used as a middle name in the 19th century.
Definition source: English Wiktionary via Wiktextract
Usage: countable, uncountable
No example sentence was provided for this meaning.
Synonyms: none provided
Antonyms: none provided
name
A number of places in the United States:
A city in Los Angeles County, California.
Definition source: English Wiktionary via Wiktextract
Usage: countable, uncountable
No example sentence was provided for this meaning.
Synonyms: none provided
Antonyms: none provided
name
A number of places in the United States:
A town in Gilchrist County, Florida.
Definition source: English Wiktionary via Wiktextract
Usage: countable, uncountable
No example sentence was provided for this meaning.
Synonyms: none provided
Antonyms: none provided
name
A number of places in the United States:
An unincorporated community in Logan County, Illinois.
Definition source: English Wiktionary via Wiktextract
Usage: countable, uncountable
No example sentence was provided for this meaning.
Synonyms: none provided
Antonyms: none provided
name
A number of places in the United States:
A census-designated place in Adair County, Oklahoma.
Definition source: English Wiktionary via Wiktextract
Usage: countable, uncountable
No example sentence was provided for this meaning.
Synonyms: none provided
Antonyms: none provided
name
A number of places in the United States:
A town in Bayfield County, Wisconsin.
Definition source: English Wiktionary via Wiktextract
Usage: countable, uncountable
No example sentence was provided for this meaning.
Synonyms: none provided
Antonyms: none provided
name
A number of places in the United States:
Three townships in Pennsylvania.
Definition source: English Wiktionary via Wiktextract
Usage: countable, uncountable
No example sentence was provided for this meaning.
Synonyms: none provided
Antonyms: none provided
name
A village in the Eastern Cape, South Africa.
Definition source: English Wiktionary via Wiktextract
Usage: countable, uncountable
No example sentence was provided for this meaning.
Synonyms: none provided
Antonyms: none provided
name
A village in the City of Blue Mountains, New South Wales, Australia.
Definition source: English Wiktionary via Wiktextract
Usage: countable, uncountable
No example sentence was provided for this meaning.
Synonyms: none provided
Antonyms: none provided
name
A rural town in Western Downs Region, Queensland, Australia.
Definition source: English Wiktionary via Wiktextract
Usage: countable, uncountable
No example sentence was provided for this meaning.
Synonyms: none provided
Antonyms: none provided
name
A municipality of Mayen-Koblenz district, Rhineland-Palatinate, Germany.
Definition source: English Wiktionary via Wiktextract
Usage: countable, uncountable
No example sentence was provided for this meaning.
Synonyms: none provided
Antonyms: none provided
name
A municipality of Rhein-Hunsrück-Kreis district, Rhineland-Palatinate.
Definition source: English Wiktionary via Wiktextract
Usage: countable, uncountable
No example sentence was provided for this meaning.
Synonyms: none provided
Antonyms: none provided
noun
A percussive instrument made of metal or other hard material, typically but not always in the shape of an inverted cup with a flared rim, which resonates when struck.
Definition source: English Wiktionary via Wiktextract
Topics: entertainment, lifestyle, music
No example sentence was provided for this meaning.
Synonyms: none provided
Antonyms: none provided
noun
An instrument that emits a ringing sound, situated on a bicycle's handlebar and used by the cyclist to warn of their presence.
Definition source: English Wiktionary via Wiktextract
No example sentence was provided for this meaning.
Synonyms: none provided
Antonyms: none provided
noun
The sounding of a bell as a signal.
Definition source: English Wiktionary via Wiktextract
No example sentence was provided for this meaning.
Synonyms: none provided
Antonyms: none provided
noun
A telephone call.
Definition source: English Wiktionary via Wiktextract
Usage: UK, informal
Synonyms: none provided
Antonyms: none provided
noun
A signal at a school that tells the students when a class is starting or ending.
Definition source: English Wiktionary via Wiktextract
No example sentence was provided for this meaning.
Synonyms: none provided
Antonyms: none provided
noun
The flared end of a brass or woodwind instrument.
Definition source: English Wiktionary via Wiktextract
Topics: entertainment, lifestyle, music
No example sentence was provided for this meaning.
Synonyms: none provided
Antonyms: none provided
noun
Any of a series of strokes on a bell (or similar), struck every half hour to indicate the time (within a four hour watch)
Definition source: English Wiktionary via Wiktextract
Topics: nautical, transport
No example sentence was provided for this meaning.
Synonyms: none provided
Antonyms: none provided
noun
The flared end of a pipe, designed to mate with a narrow spigot.
Definition source: English Wiktionary via Wiktextract
No example sentence was provided for this meaning.
Synonyms: none provided
Antonyms: none provided
noun
The bell character.
Definition source: English Wiktionary via Wiktextract
Topics: computing, engineering, mathematics, natural-sciences, physical-sciences, sciences
No example sentence was provided for this meaning.
Synonyms: alert, beep, mul:\a
Antonyms: none provided
noun
Anything shaped like a bell, such as the cup or corolla of a flower.
Definition source: English Wiktionary via Wiktextract
No example sentence was provided for this meaning.
Synonyms: none provided
Antonyms: none provided
noun
The part of the capital of a column included between the abacus and neck molding; also used for the naked core of nearly cylindrical shape, assumed to exist within the leafage of a capital.
Definition source: English Wiktionary via Wiktextract
Topics: architecture
No example sentence was provided for this meaning.
Synonyms: none provided
Antonyms: none provided
noun
The rounded upper part of a jellyfish.
Definition source: English Wiktionary via Wiktextract
No example sentence was provided for this meaning.
Synonyms: none provided
Antonyms: none provided
noun
A bubble.
Definition source: English Wiktionary via Wiktextract
Usage: Scotland, archaic
No example sentence was provided for this meaning.
Synonyms: none provided
Antonyms: none provided
noun
Clipping of bell-end (“stupid or contemptible person”).
Definition source: English Wiktionary via Wiktextract
Usage: UK, abbreviation, alt-of, clipping, slang, vulgar
No example sentence was provided for this meaning.
Synonyms: none provided
Antonyms: none provided
noun
The bellow or bay of certain animals, such as a hound on the hunt or a stag in rut.
Definition source: English Wiktionary via Wiktextract
No example sentence was provided for this meaning.
Synonyms: none provided
Antonyms: none provided
noun
a telephone utility; a Baby Bell.
Definition source: English Wiktionary via Wiktextract
Usage: Canada, US
No example sentence was provided for this meaning.
Synonyms: none provided
Antonyms: none provided
verb
To attach a bell to.
Definition source: English Wiktionary via Wiktextract
Usage: transitive
Synonyms: none provided
Antonyms: none provided
verb
To shape so that it flares out like a bell.
Definition source: English Wiktionary via Wiktextract
Usage: transitive
Synonyms: none provided
Antonyms: none provided
verb
To telephone.
Definition source: English Wiktionary via Wiktextract
Usage: slang, transitive
No example sentence was provided for this meaning.
Synonyms: none provided
Antonyms: none provided
verb
To develop bells or corollas; to take the form of a bell; to blossom.
Definition source: English Wiktionary via Wiktextract
Usage: intransitive
Synonyms: none provided
Antonyms: none provided
verb
To ring a bell.
Definition source: English Wiktionary via Wiktextract
No example sentence was provided for this meaning.
Synonyms: none provided
Antonyms: none provided
verb
To bellow or roar.
Definition source: English Wiktionary via Wiktextract
Usage: intransitive
No example sentence was provided for this meaning.
Synonyms: none provided
Antonyms: none provided
verb
To utter in a loud manner; to thunder forth.
Definition source: English Wiktionary via Wiktextract
Usage: transitive
No example sentence was provided for this meaning.
Synonyms: none provided
Antonyms: none provided
noun
a hollow device made of metal that makes a ringing sound when struck
Definition source: Princeton WordNet 3.0
No example sentence was provided for this meaning.
Synonyms: none provided
Antonyms: none provided
Broader terms: acoustic device, signaling device
Narrower terms: church bell, cowbell, death knell, death bell, dinner bell, electric bell, fire bell, school bell, sheep bell, shop bell, sleigh bell, cascabel, tocsin, warning bell, Liberty Bell
noun
the flared opening of a tubular device
Definition source: Princeton WordNet 3.0
No example sentence was provided for this meaning.
Synonyms: none provided
Antonyms: none provided
Broader terms: opening
noun
a percussion instrument consisting of a set of tuned bells that are struck with a hammer; used as an orchestral instrument
Definition source: Princeton WordNet 3.0
No example sentence was provided for this meaning.
Synonyms: chime, gong
Antonyms: none provided
Broader terms: percussion instrument, percussive instrument
Narrower terms: carillon, handbell
noun
a push button at an outer door that gives a ringing or buzzing signal when pushed
Definition source: Princeton WordNet 3.0
No example sentence was provided for this meaning.
Synonyms: doorbell, buzzer
Antonyms: none provided
Broader terms: push button, push, button
Narrower terms: night bell
noun
the sound of a bell being struck
Definition source: Princeton WordNet 3.0
Synonyms: toll
Antonyms: none provided
Broader terms: sound
Narrower terms: knell, angelus bell, angelus
noun
United States inventor (born in Scotland) of the telephone (1847-1922)
Definition source: Princeton WordNet 3.0
No example sentence was provided for this meaning.
Synonyms: Alexander Bell, Alexander Graham Bell
Antonyms: none provided
Broader terms: inventor, discoverer, artificer
noun
English painter; sister of Virginia Woolf; prominent member of the Bloomsbury Group (1879-1961)
Definition source: Princeton WordNet 3.0
No example sentence was provided for this meaning.
Synonyms: Vanessa Bell, Vanessa Stephen
Antonyms: none provided
Broader terms: painter
noun
a phonetician and father of Alexander Graham Bell (1819-1905)
Definition source: Princeton WordNet 3.0
No example sentence was provided for this meaning.
Synonyms: Melville Bell, Alexander Melville Bell
Antonyms: none provided
Broader terms: phonetician
noun
the shape of a bell
Definition source: Princeton WordNet 3.0
No example sentence was provided for this meaning.
Synonyms: bell shape, campana
Antonyms: none provided
Broader terms: curve, curved shape
noun
(nautical) each of the eight half-hour units of nautical time signaled by strokes of a ship's bell; eight bells signals 4:00, 8:00, or 12:00 o'clock, either a.m. or p.m.
Definition source: Princeton WordNet 3.0
No example sentence was provided for this meaning.
Synonyms: ship's bell
Antonyms: none provided
Broader terms: time unit, unit of time
verb
attach a bell to
Definition source: Princeton WordNet 3.0
Synonyms: none provided
Antonyms: none provided
Broader terms: attach
History
Etymology tree Proto-Indo-European *bhel-der. Proto-Germanic *bellǭ Proto-West Germanic *bellā Old English belle Middle English belle English bell Inherited from Middle English belle, from Old English belle, from Proto-West Germanic *bellā, from Proto-Germanic *bellǭ, from Proto-Indo-European *bhel-. Cognate with West Frisian belle, bel (“bell”), Dutch bel (“bell”), Low German Belle, Bel (“bell”), Danish bjælde (“bell”), Faroese bjølla (“bell”), Icelandic bjalla (“bell”), Norwegian bjelle (“bell”), Swedish bjällra (“bell”).
From Middle English bellen, from Old English bellan (“to bellow; make a hollow noise; roar; bark; grunt”), from Proto-Germanic *bellaną (“to sound; roar; bark”), from Proto-Indo-European *bhel- (“to sound; roar; bark”). Cognate with Scots bell (“to shout; speak loudly”), Dutch bellen (“to ring”), German Low German bellen (“to ring”), German bellen (“to bark”), Swedish böla (“to low; bellow; roar”).
Across languages
350 source translations are retained for this English entry.
