Word.ws English Dictionary

els

/ˈɛlz/

els is the plural of el.

els is the obsolete form of else.

Meaning of el

Noun (1)

el (plural els)

  1. The name of the Latin script letter L/l.
    • The word length, which contains only four sounds l e ng th, is usually spell'd thus, el ee en gee tee aitch.1773 October, The Monthly Review Or Literary Journal Enlarged

Noun (2)

el (plural els)

  1. (US) An elevated railway, especially for specific systems such as the metro in Chicago (informal)
    • The main section of the Sixth Avenue El from Morris Street to Ninth Avenue and 53rd Street shut down on December 4, 1938.2012, Roger P. Roess, Gene Sansone, The Wheels That Drove New York, page 294

Noun (3)

el (plural els)

  1. The name of the Cyrillic script letter Л / л

See all 8 meanings of el

Meaning of else

Adjective

else (not comparable)

  1. (postpositional) Other; in addition to previously mentioned items.
    • The instructor is busy. Can anyone else help me?

See all 4 meanings of else

Proper noun (1) capitalized: ELS

ELS

  1. (abbreviation, initialism) Initialism of Evangelical Lutheran Synod.
  2. (abbreviation, initialism, fibre optics) Initialism of external light source or external laser source.

Noun capitalized: ELs

ELs

  1. (plural) plural of EL

Proper noun (2) capitalized: Els

Els

  1. (plural) plural of El

Words that rhyme with els

3 more rhymesFewer rhymes

Questions about els

What is els the plural of?
Els is the plural of el.
What part of speech is els?
Els can be a proper noun or a noun.
How do you pronounce els?
Els is pronounced /ˈɛlz/.

Words near els in the dictionary

  1. elritch
  2. Elrod
  3. Elrods
  4. Elron
  5. Elroy
  6. els
  7. Elsa
  8. Elsagate
  9. elsamitrucin
  10. Elsan
  11. Elsanna

Source and license

Adapted from Wiktionary: els (page history and authors); ELS (page history and authors); ELs (page history and authors); Els (page history and authors); el (page history and authors); else (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:

Pronunciation audio from Wikimedia Commons, each file under its own free license: LL-Q1860 (eng)-Vealhurl-els1.wav.

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