label
UK/ˈleɪ.bəl/
More pronunciations (1)Fewer pronunciations
British[ˈlɛj.b(ə)ɫ]
label noun: a small ticket or sign giving information about something to which it is attached or intended to be attached.
Noun
label (plural labels)
- A small ticket or sign giving information about something to which it is attached or intended to be attached.
- We laughed at her because the label was still on her new sweater.
- The label says this silk scarf should not be washed in the washing machine.
- A name given to something or someone to categorise them as part of a particular social group.
- Ever since he started going to the rock club, he's been given the label "waster".
- Synonyms:
- category, pigeonhole
- A company that sells records.
- The label signed the band after hearing a demo tape.
- Synonyms:
- record label
- A user-defined alias for a numerical designation, the reverse of an enumeration.
- Storage devices can be given by label or ID.
- A named place in source code that can be jumped to using a GOTO or equivalent construct.
- A charge resembling the strap crossing the horse’s chest from which pendants are hung.
- Synonyms:
- lambel
- A tassel.
- the arms or escutcheon of France , hanging by a label on an oaka. 1662 (date written), Thomas Fuller, The History of the Worthies of England, London: […] J[ohn] G[rismond,] W[illiam] L[eybourne] and W[illiam] G[odbid], published 1662, →OCLC
- A small strip, especially of paper or parchment (or of some material attached to parchment to carry the seal), but also of iron, brass, land, etc.
- Ere this hand, by thee to Romeo seal'd, / Shall be the label to another deed.c. 1591–1595 (date written), William Shakespeare, “The Tragedie of Romeo and Ivliet”, in Mr. William Shakespeares Comedies, Histories, & Tragedies […] (First Folio), London: […] Isaac Iaggard, and...
- They […] 'sealed the grave, and rolled a great stone at the mouth of it' and as an ancient tradition says, bound it about with labels of iron.1649, Jer[emy] Taylor, chapter 39, in The Great Exemplar of Sanctity and Holy Life According to the Christian Institution. […], London: […] R. N. for Francis Ash, […], →OCLC, (please specify |part=1...
- A piece of writing added to something, such as a codicil appended to a will.
- A brass rule with sights, formerly used with a circumferentor to take altitudes.
- The projecting moulding by the sides, and over the tops, of openings in mediaeval architecture.
- Sculptured ends of labels are called label-stops.2018, Marilyn Stokstad, Medieval Art, Routledge, →ISBN
- In mediaeval and later art, a representation of a band or scroll containing an inscription.
- 2654. Two-handled globular vase; early Deruta lustred ware; centre surrounded by a band of scroll work; on each side the neck is an oval compartment with clasped hands, and a label scroll inscribed "Co pura fe.;" decoration, blue outline on white ground filled in with yellow lustre.1859, Inventory of the Objects forming the Collections of the Museum of Ornamental Art at South Kensington, Victoria and Albert Museum, page 34
- Boime correctly suggests that medieval artists who employed labels or scrolls to gloss illustrations typically configured text and image in visually overlapping, but cognitively separate, spaces.2000, The Rutgers Art Review
- A non-interactive control or widget displaying text, often used to describe the purpose of another control.
Verb
label (third-person singular simple present labels, present participle (US) labeling or (UK) labelling, simple past and past participle (US) labeled or (UK) labelled)
- To put a label (a ticket or sign) on (something).
- The shop assistant labeled all the products in the shop.
- To give (a label) to (someone or something) in order to categorise that person or thing.
- He's been unfairly labeled as a cheat, although he's only ever cheated once.
- A friend of mine who runs an intellectual magazine was grousing about his movie critic, complaining that though the fellow had liked The Godfather (page 58), he had neglected to label it clearly as a masterpiece.1972 December 29, Richard Schickel, “Masterpieces underrated and overlooked”, in Life, volume 73, number 25, page 22
- To replace specific atoms by their isotope in order to track the presence or movement of this isotope through a reaction, metabolic pathway or cell.
- To add a detectable substance, either transiently or permanently, to a biological substance in order to track the presence of the label-substance combination either in situ or in vitro
- They may be used to label and image a protein within tissue, to isolate cells on the basis of marker expression, or to physically capture a protein from a complex biological mixture....Apr 15 2015, “Protein binder woes”, in Nature Methods
Proper noun capitalized: Label
Label
- a language spoken in Papua New Guinea
label meaning in Hindi, Tamil, Marathi and Urdu
label in Hindi
- small ticket or sign giving information
- लेबल lebal
label in Tamil
- சிட்டை, முத்திரைச் சீட்டு, பொருள் விவரச் சீட்டு
label in Marathi
- लेबल, लेबल करा, लेबल करण्यासाठी
label in Urdu
- small ticket or sign giving information
- لیبَل lebal
More languagesFewer languages
- label in Bengali
- লেবেল lebel
- label in Telugu
- విలాసము vilāsamu
- label in Malayalam
- ചീട്ട്, ലേബൽ, നാമപത്രം
- label in Kannada
- ಹಣೆಪಟ್ಟಿ, ಮಾನನಷ್ಟ ಲೇಖನ, ಮಾನಹಾನಿ ಮಾಡುವ ಬರಹ, ಗುರುತು
- label in Punjabi
- ਲੇਬਲ, ਲੇਬਲ ਕਰਨ ਲਈ, ਲੇਬਲ ਲਗਾਉਣ ਲਈ
- label in Gujarati
- લેબલ, લેબલ કરો, લેબલ કરવા માટે
- label in Odia
- ଟିକଟ ṭikaṭa
- label in Nepali
- लेबल, लेबल गर्नुहोस्, लेबल गर्न
- label in Arabic
- مُلْصَق mulṣaq, بِطَاقَة biṭāqa, يَافْطَة yāfṭa
- label in Malay
- label
- label in Indonesian
- label, etiket
- label in Persian
- برچسب زدن barčasb zadan
- label in Thai
- ฉลาก chà-làak
- label in Vietnamese
- nhãn
- label in Myanmar
- ကပ်တံဆိပ် kaptamhcip, တံဆိပ် tamhcip
Examples of label in a sentence
- Although the label priced this poster at three pounds, I got it for two.
- Where Balak met Balaam, standing as it were on his tiptoes on the very last labell of his land, to reach forth […]1650, Fuller, Pisgah, IV. i. 25:
- The flesh and skin hung down in long Collops and Labels.1679, Hist. of Jetzer, section 5:
- And the liberal blogosphere has long labeled Clinton part of the neoconservative wing, a conservative intellectual movement that supports an interventionist foreign policy.2016 August 31, Tal Kopan, “Will Hillary Clinton’s GOP outreach alienate progressives?”, in CNN:
Synonyms of label
1 more synonymsFewer synonyms
Forms of label
| Noun | |
|---|---|
| plural | labels |
| Verb | |
| third-person singular present | labels |
| present participle US | labeling |
| present participle UK | labelling |
| past participle US | labeled |
| past US | labeled |
| past participle UK | labelled |
| past UK | labelled |
Origin of label
From Middle English label (“narrow band, strip of cloth”), from Old French label, lambel (Modern French lambeau), from Frankish *lappā (“torn piece of cloth”), from Proto-Germanic *lappǭ, *lappô (“cloth stuff, rag, scraps, flap, dewlap, lobe, rabbit ear”), from Proto-Indo-European *leb- (“blade”). Cognate with Old High German lappa (“rag, piece of cloth”), Old English læppa (“skirt, flap of a garment”). More at lap.
Words formed from label
- biolabel
- book label
- charity label
- clean label
- clean-label
- colabel
- designer label
- disklabel
- ecolabel
- extra-label
- green label
- immunolabel
- interlabel
- labelable
- label cloud
- labeler
- labelese
- labeller
- labelless
- labelmate
- matchbox label
- microlabel
- mislabel
- multilabel
- netlabel
- off label
- off-label
- own label
- photolabel
- private label
- radiolabel
- record label
- spin label
- sublabel
- vanity label
- white-label
- white label
- relabel
Phrases with label
Words that rhyme with label
16 more rhymesFewer rhymes
Questions about label
- What does label mean?
- Label means a small ticket or sign giving information about something to which it is attached or intended to be attached.
- What is label in Hindi?
- Label in Hindi is लेबल (lebal). See Label meaning in Hindi.
- How do you use label in a sentence?
- Although the label priced this poster at three pounds, I got it for two.
- What part of speech is label?
- Label can be a noun, a verb or a proper noun.
- How do you pronounce label?
- Label is pronounced /ˈleɪ.bəl/ (UK).
- What is the plural of label?
- The plural of label is labels.
Words near label in the dictionary
Source and license
Adapted from Wiktionary: label (page history and authors); Label (page history and authors); label (Tamil Wiktionary) (page history and authors); label (Marathi, IndicTrans2 machine translation) (model and license); విలాసము (Telugu) (page history and authors); label (Malayalam Wiktionary) (page history and authors); label (Kannada Wiktionary) (page history and authors); label (Punjabi, IndicTrans2 machine translation) (model and license); label (Gujarati, IndicTrans2 machine translation) (model and license); ଟିକଟ (Odia) (page history and authors); label (Nepali, 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: En-us-label.ogg.
Cite this entry: “label.” Word.ws, https://word.ws/label. Based on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.