Word.ws English Dictionary

labelese

labelese noun: the type of language used on labels.

Noun

labelese (uncountable)

  1. The type of language used on labels.
    • A revision of the 1972 Care Labeling Rule, which became effective in January, makes the care information on clothing labels more consistent and succinct. To help you sort through the new labelese, the Federal Trade Commission offers a guide covering the rules and includes a glossary of standard...1984 August, “Things to write for”, in Changing Times: The Kiplinger Magazine, volume 38, number 8, page 74
    • Don’t despair, Fellow Computer User, in trying to read the labels - labelese can be fun. Clyde finally figured it out after studying labels for a long time. Labelese is a mixture of ancient Chinese text, mixed with Old Slavonic and interspersed with Old Celtic and written as if mortals could...2003, Clyde Cartwright, “Sector 002 - Dante’s Inferno”, in Clyde’s Guide to Computerese and Weight Loss, New York, N.Y.: Kroshka Books, →ISBN, pages 5–6

Examples of labelese in a sentence

  • To help you sort through the new labelese, the Federal Trade Commission offers a guide covering the rules and includes a glossary of standard terms manufacturers are encouraged to use.1984 August, “Things to write for”, in Changing Times: The Kiplinger Magazine, volume 38, number 8, page 74:
  • Don’t despair, Fellow Computer User, in trying to read the labels - labelese can be fun.2003, Clyde Cartwright, “Sector 002 - Dante’s Inferno”, in Clyde’s Guide to Computerese and Weight Loss, New York, N.Y.: Kroshka Books...
  • It might mean 0.5 milligrams in labelese.2009, Elizabeth Somer, “Secret 1: Eat Real 75% of the Time”, in Eat Your Way to Happiness, Harlequin, →ISBN, section “The 75% Solution”...

Origin of labelese

From label + -ese.

Questions about labelese

What does labelese mean?
Labelese means the type of language used on labels.
How do you use labelese in a sentence?
To help you sort through the new labelese, the Federal Trade Commission offers a guide covering the rules and includes a glossary of standard terms manufacturers are encouraged to use.
What part of speech is labelese?
Labelese is a noun.

Words near labelese in the dictionary

  1. label clouds
  2. labelable
  3. labeled
  4. labeler
  5. labelers
  6. labelese
  7. labeling
  8. labelings
  9. labelized
  10. labell
  11. labella

Source and license

Adapted from Wiktionary: labelese (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:

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