Word.ws English Dictionary

-cel

/-sɛl/

-cel suffix: denoting a type of incel (often through a stereotype).

Suffix

-cel (noun-forming suffix, plural -cels)

  1. (incel slang) Denoting a type of incel (often through a stereotype).
    • curry + -cel → currycel (“an Indian incel”)
    • rice + -cel → ricecel (“an East Asian incel”)
  2. (Internet, broadly, ironic) Used tongue-in-cheek for a wide range of effects unrelated to romance.
    • word + -cel → wordcel (“someone with high writing skills and verbal intelligence”)
    • theory + -cel → theorycel (“someone interested in extremely academic and abstract ideas”)

Forms of -cel

plural-cels

Origin of -cel

A clipping derived from incel. A highly-productive suffix; compare the more offensive -fag, which may have partly inspired it. First attested in c. late 2010s.

Questions about -cel

What does -cel mean?
-cel means denoting a type of incel (often through a stereotype).
What part of speech is -cel?
-cel is a suffix.
How do you pronounce -cel?
-cel is pronounced /-sɛl/.

Words near -cel in the dictionary

  1. -cation
  2. -cavir
  3. -cc
  4. -ccino
  5. -ce
  6. -cel
  7. -cele
  8. -celes
  9. -cels
  10. -cene
  11. -centesis

Source and license

Adapted from Wiktionary: -cel (page history and authors). Text available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 license. Word.ws reformatted the entry and added links. Wiktionary data of 2026-09-02.

Last updated:

Cite this entry: “-cel.” Word.ws, https://word.ws/-cel. Based on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.