Word.ws English Dictionary

dal

/dɑːl/

dal noun: any of many dried husked pulses (legume), including peas, beans and lentils.

Noun (1)

dal (countable and uncountable, plural dals)

  1. Any of many dried husked pulses (legume), including peas, beans and lentils.
  2. A dish made from lentils, cooked with spices, tomatoes and onions etc.
    • A stout Burmese woman, wife of a constable, was kneeling outside the cage ladling rice and watery dahl into tin pannikins.1934, George Orwell, chapter 6, in Burmese Days
  3. A tropical herb with yellow flowers; the pigeon pea.

Noun (2) capitalized: DAL

DAL (plural DALs)

  1. (abbreviation, initialism) Initialism of data access layer, a software architecture layer.
  2. (abbreviation, initialism) Initialism of database abstraction layer, a software architecture layer.

Proper noun (1) capitalized: DAL

DAL

  1. (abbreviation) Abbreviation of Dallas.
  2. (abbreviation, initialism) Initialism of Delta Air Lines.
    • AmEx has co-branded cards with Delta (DAL) and Hilton (HLT), and Squeri said spending volume for both increased by double digit percentages in the quarter.2021 July 23, Paul R. La Monica, “American Express is the Dow’s top stock for 2021. Here’s why”, in CNN Business

Proper noun (2) capitalized: Dal

Dal

  1. (informal) Dalhousie University in Nova Scotia, Canada.
    • The recreation program at Dal is very well rounded.2007, Carolyn C. Wise, Stephanie Hauser, The College Buzz Book, page 923
  2. A river in central Sweden, the second longest in the country.

dal meaning in Hindi, Tamil, Urdu and Bengali

dal in Hindi

a dried husked pulse
दाल dāl
dish
दाल dāl

dal in Tamil

a dried husked pulse
பருப்பு paruppu, கந்தி kanti
dish
பருப்புக்கறி paruppukkaṟi

dal in Urdu

a dried husked pulse
دال dāl

dal in Bengali

a dried husked pulse
ডাল ḍal, ডাইল ḍail
More languagesFewer languages
dal in Telugu
పప్పు pappu
dal in Malayalam
പരിപ്പ് parippŭ, പരിപ്പുകറി parippukaṟi
dal in Kannada
ತೊವ್ವೆ tovve
dal in Punjabi
ਦਾਲ dāl, ਦਾਲ਼ dāḷ
dal in Gujarati
દાળ dāḷ
dal in Odia
ଦାଲ୍
dal in Sinhala
පරිප්පු parippu
dal in Assamese
দাইল dail, ডালি dali
dal in Nepali
दाल dāl
dal in Persian
دال dâl, دالعدس dâla-'das

Synonyms of dal

Forms of dal

pluraldals
alternative formdahl
alternative formdhal
alternative formdaal
alternative formdholl
alternative formdoll
pluralDALs

Plural of dal: dals

Origin of dal

Borrowed from Hindi दाल (dāl) or Bengali ডাল (ḍal).

The river is from Swedish Dalälven, probably from Old Norse dálr (“valley”).

Words formed from dal

Phrases with dal

Words that rhyme with dal

15 more rhymesFewer rhymes

Questions about dal

What does dal mean?
Dal means any of many dried husked pulses (legume), including peas, beans and lentils.
What is dal in Hindi?
Dal in Hindi is दाल (dāl). See Dal meaning in Hindi.
What part of speech is dal?
Dal can be a noun or a proper noun.
How do you pronounce dal?
Dal is pronounced /dɑːl/ (UK).
What is the plural of dal?
The plural of dal is dals.

Words near dal in the dictionary

  1. dakshinachara
  2. dakshinacharas
  3. daktarin
  4. daktyla
  5. dakuten
  6. dal
  7. dal bhat
  8. dal segno
  9. dal tadka
  10. dal tarka
  11. dala

Source and license

Adapted from Wiktionary: dal (page history and authors); DAL (page history and authors); Dal (page history and authors); dal (Odia, IndicTrans2 machine translation) (model and license). 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:

Pronunciation audio from Wikimedia Commons, each file under its own free license: LL-Q1860 (eng)-Vealhurl-dal.wav.

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