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bell

Pronunciation: /bɛl/

The English word “bell” has 20 meanings listed here.

noun

  1. 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.
  2. An instrument that emits a ringing sound, situated on a bicycle's handlebar and used by the cyclist to warn of their presence.
  3. The sounding of a bell as a signal.
  4. A telephone call.
  5. A signal at a school that tells the students when a class is starting or ending.
  6. The flared end of a brass or woodwind instrument.
  7. Any of a series of strokes on a bell (or similar), struck every half hour to indicate the time (within a four hour watch)
  8. The flared end of a pipe, designed to mate with a narrow spigot.
  9. The bell character.
  10. Anything shaped like a bell, such as the cup or corolla of a flower.
  11. 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.
  12. The rounded upper part of a jellyfish.
  13. A bubble.

verb

  1. To attach a bell to.
  2. To shape so that it flares out like a bell.
  3. To telephone.
  4. To develop bells or corollas; to take the form of a bell; to blossom.
  5. To ring a bell.
  6. To bellow or roar.
  7. To utter in a loud manner; to thunder forth.

Etymology

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”).

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Definitions are from Wiktionary, extracted by Kaikki.org, and are available under the CC BY-SA 4.0 licence.