Word.ws English Dictionary

beetel

beetel is the obsolete spelling of betel.

Meaning of betel

Noun

betel (usually uncountable, plural betels)

  1. (usually) Either of two (parts of) plants often used in combination
    • Her face was flushed with the tingling effect of betel leaves.1958, R. K. Narayan, The Guide, Penguin, published 1988, page 194
  2. (usually) An evergreen Indian creeping shrub, Piper betle, whose dried leaves are chewed with betel nut: the betel pepper.
  3. (usually) The betel palm, Areca catechu, and in particular its seed, the areca nut or betel nut.
  4. (usually) A quid (chewing preparation) containing these and other plant materials; paan.
    • In a small Bamboo case, prettily carved and ornamented, the Dyak carries his sirih and lime for betel chewing, and his little long-bladed knife has a Bamboo sheath.1869, Alfred Russel Wallace, The Malay Archipelago, volume I, London: Macmillan and Co., page 126

Forms of beetel

pluralbeetels

Origin of beetel

Borrowed from Portuguese bétele, from Malayalam വെറ്റില (veṟṟila) or Tamil வெற்றிலை (veṟṟilai).

Words formed from beetel

Phrases with beetel

Questions about beetel

What is beetel the obsolete spelling of?
Beetel is the obsolete spelling of betel.

Words near beetel in the dictionary

  1. beet-red
  2. beet-root
  3. beet-roots
  4. beetball
  5. beetballs
  6. beetel
  7. beetel leaf
  8. beetel leaves
  9. beetel nut
  10. beetel nuts
  11. beetels

Source and license

Adapted from Wiktionary: beetel (page history and authors); betel (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.

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