bell

UK/bɛl/

More pronunciations (1)Fewer pronunciations

Australia/bel/

bell 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. Also the clipping of bell-end.

Image: Palauenc05, CC BY-SA 4.0, via Wikimedia Commons

Noun (1)

bell (plural bells)

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.
- HEAR the sledges with the bells —
  Silver bells!
  What a world of merriment their melody foretells!1848, Edgar Allan Poe, The Bells
- The bell which called the pupils to their lessons can still be seen on the roof.1980, AA Book of British Villages, Drive Publications Ltd, page 269, about a school in Lower Peover
Synonyms:

campane
An instrument that emits a ringing sound, situated on a bicycle's handlebar and used by the cyclist to warn of their presence.
The sounding of a bell as a signal.
- Referee Steve Smoger was an almost invisible presence in the ring as both men went at it, although he did have a word with Froch when he landed with a shot after the bell at the end of the eighth.2011 December 18, Ben Dirs, “Carl Froch outclassed by dazzling Andre Ward”, in BBC Sport
(UK, informal) A telephone call.
- I’ll give you a bell later.
A signal at a school that tells the students when a class is starting or ending.
The flared end of a brass or woodwind instrument.
Any of a series of strokes on a bell (or similar), struck every half hour to indicate the time (within a four hour watch)
The flared end of a pipe, designed to mate with a narrow spigot.
The bell character.

Synonyms:

alert, beep
Anything shaped like a bell, such as the cup or corolla of a flower.
- In a cowslip's bell I lie.1610–1611 (date written), William Shakespeare, “The Tempest”, in Mr. William Shakespeares Comedies, Histories, & Tragedies […] (First Folio), London: […] Isaac Iaggard, and Ed[ward] Blount, published...
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.
The rounded upper part of a jellyfish.
(Scotland, archaic) A bubble.
- He swam to the place where Mary disappeared but there was neither boil nor gurgle on the water, nor even a bell of departing breath, to mark the place where his beloved had sunk.1828, James Hogg, Mary Burnet

Verb (1)

bell (third-person singular simple present bells, present participle belling, simple past and past participle belled)

(transitive) To attach a bell to.
- Who will bell the cat?
(transitive) To shape so that it flares out like a bell.
- to bell a tube
(slang, transitive) To telephone.
- "Vinny, you tosser, it's Keith. I thought you were back today. I'm in town. Bell us on the mobile.2006, Dominic Lavin, Last Seen in Bangkok
(intransitive) To develop bells or corollas; to take the form of a bell; to blossom.
- Hops bell.
To ring a bell.
- So that the Euston signalman may be advised of approaching trains as soon as possible, the Camden signalman sets up and transmits the description of each train immediately after it is belled to him.1955 March, “Train Describers at Euston”, in Railway Magazine, page 169

Verb (2)

bell (third-person singular simple present bells, present participle belling, simple past and past participle belled)

(intransitive) To bellow or roar.
- This animal is said to harbour in the place where he resides. When he cries, he is said to bell; the print of his hoof is called the slot; his tail is called the single; his excrement the fumet; his horns are called his head [...].1774, Oliver Goldsmith, A History of the Earth, and Animated Nature
- As the dawn was breaking the Sambhur belled / Once, twice and again!1894 May, Rudyard Kipling, The Jungle Book, London; New York, N.Y.: Macmillan and Co., published June 1894, →OCLC
(transitive) To utter in a loud manner; to thunder forth.
- Their leaders bell their bleating tunes In doleful sound.1591, Edmund Spenser, Astrophel

Noun (2)

bell (plural bells)

The bellow or bay of certain animals, such as a hound on the hunt or a stag in rut.

Proper noun capitalized: Bell

Bell (countable and uncountable, plural Bells)

A surname of Scottish and northern English origin for a bell ringer, bellmaker, or from someone who lived "at the Bell (inn)."
- “As far as I’m concerned, wives come and go, but Weezers are forever. And if Rivers [Cuomo] doesn’t realize that, then maybe he just doesn’t understand what being a Weezer is all about.” At press time, an increasingly frustrated Bell had reportedly announced plans to split off from the group and...2015 June 1, The Onion Staff, “Disgruntled Bandmates Worried Rivers Cuomo’s Wife Becoming The Fifth Weezer”, in The Onion, archived from the original on 27 Apr 2024, retrieved 09 Dec 2025
The Bell telephone company (after Alexander Graham Bell, the inventor of the telephone.)
A male given name transferred from the surname, of occasional usage.
A female given name, variant of Belle; mostly used as a middle name in the 19th century.
- Here, Isabel, here is the good gentleman’s handkerchief; keep it for him now, till he comes to see little Bell again.1852, Herman Melville, Pierre; or The Ambiguities
- […] I found that her Christian name was Isabella, which they shortened into Bell, and that the name of the deceased non-commissioned officer was Tott. Being the kind of neat little woman it was natural to make a toy of—I never saw a woman so like a toy in my life—she had got the plaything name of...1857, Charles Dickens, chapter 1, in The Perils of Certain English Prisoners
A city in Los Angeles County, California.
A town in Gilchrist County, Florida.
An unincorporated community in Logan County, Illinois.
A census-designated place in Adair County, Oklahoma.
A town in Bayfield County, Wisconsin.
Three townships in Pennsylvania.
A village in the Eastern Cape, South Africa.
A village in the City of Blue Mountains, New South Wales, Australia.

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A rural town in Western Downs Region, Queensland, Australia.
A municipality of Mayen-Koblenz district, Rhineland-Palatinate, Germany.
A municipality of Rhein-Hunsrück-Kreis district, Rhineland-Palatinate.

Noun (3) capitalized: Bell

Bell (plural Bells)

(Canada, US) a telephone utility; a Baby Bell.

Also used as

bell is also the clipping of bell-end.

bell meaning in Hindi, Tamil, Urdu and Bengali

bell in Hindi

percussive instrument: घंटा ghaṇṭā, घंटी ghaṇṭī

bell in Tamil

percussive instrument: மணி maṇi

bell in Urdu

percussive instrument: گَھنْٹَہ ghanṭa, گَھنْٹی ghanṭī

bell in Bengali

percussive instrument: ঘণ্টা ghonṭa

More languagesFewer languages

bell in Telugu: గంట gaṇṭa
bell in Malayalam: മണി maṇi
bell in Pashto: چان čān
bell in Tagalog: kampana
bell in Arabic: جَرَس jaras, جرس garas, اِتِّصَال ittiṣāl
bell in Malay: loceng
bell in Indonesian: loceng, bel
bell in Persian: زَنْگ zang, زَنْگولِه zangule, تَماس tamâs
bell in Thai: ระฆัง rá-kang, กระดิ่ง grà-dìng
bell in Vietnamese: chuông
bell in Myanmar: ခေါင်းလောင်း hkaung:laung:

Examples of bell in a sentence

You acted part so well, went alɬ-fours upon earth / The live-long day, brayed, belled.1872, Robert Browning, Fifine at the Fair:
Then, incredibly, a rutting stag belled by the trunks.1955, William Golding, The Inheritors, Faber and Faber, published 2005, page 128:

All 40 example sentences with bell

Synonyms of bell

campane
alert
beep
tintinnabule

Forms of bell

Noun
plural	bells
plural	Bells
Verb
third-person singular present	bells
present participle	belling
past participle	belled
past	belled
Proper noun
plural	Bells

Plural of bell: bells

Origin of 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”).

Phrases with bell

149 more phrasesFewer phrases

Words that rhyme with bell

48 more rhymesFewer rhymes

Questions about bell

What does bell mean?: Bell means 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.
What is bell in Hindi?: Bell in Hindi is घंटा (ghaṇṭā), घंटी (ghaṇṭī). See Bell meaning in Hindi.
How do you use bell in a sentence?: You acted part so well, went alɬ-fours upon earth / The live-long day, brayed, belled.
What part of speech is bell?: Bell can be a noun, a verb or a proper noun.
How do you pronounce bell?: Bell is pronounced /bɛl/ (UK).
What is the plural of bell?: The plural of bell is bells.

Words near bell in the dictionary

Adapted from Wiktionary: bell (page history and authors); Bell (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: 2026-09-02

Pronunciation audio from Wikimedia Commons, each file under its own free license: en-us-bell.ogg.

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