lentil

Syllables: len·til/ˈlɛntəl/

lentil noun: any of several plants of the genus Lens, especially Lens culinaris, from southwest Asia, that have edible, lens-shaped seeds within flattened pods.

Image: Justinc, CC BY-SA 2.0, via Wikimedia Commons

Noun

lentil (plural lentils)

Any of several plants of the genus Lens, especially Lens culinaris, from southwest Asia, that have edible, lens-shaped seeds within flattened pods.
The seed of these plants, used as food.
- make a lentil stew
- a lentil salad
A small chocolate candy in an edible shell.
- An enhanced focus on the brand's iconic color palette and the use of different shapes and sizes of M&M'S lentils across all touchpoints to prove that all together, we're more fun2022 January 20, Mars Corporation, “Iconic M&M'S® Brand Announces Global Commitment to Creating A World Where Everyone Feels They Belong”, in PR Newswire, retrieved 17 Sep 2025
Synonyms:

dragée

lentil meaning in Hindi, Tamil, Marathi and Urdu

lentil in Hindi

plant Lens culinaris: दाल dāl
seed used as food: दाल dāl

lentil in Tamil

plant Lens culinaris: துவரை tuvarai
seed used as food: மைசூர்ப் பருப்பு maicūrp paruppu

lentil in Urdu

lentil: عدس 'adas
lentil, dal: دال dāl

More languagesFewer languages

lentil in Bengali: মসুর mośur, ডাল ḍal
lentil in Malayalam: പയറ്, ധാന്യം, പയർവർഗ്ഗത്തിൽ പെട്ട ചെടി
lentil in Kannada: ಮಸೂರ ಅವರೆ masūra avare
lentil in Gujarati: મસુર masur
lentil in Sinhala: මසූර් masūr
lentil in Nepali: दाल dāl
lentil in Tagalog: lentehas
lentil in Arabic: عَدَس ʕadas
lentil in Malay: kacang
lentil in Indonesian: kacang adas, kacang
lentil in Persian: مرجومک marjumak, مرجو marju, عدس 'adas
lentil in Thai: ถั่ว tùua
lentil in Vietnamese: đậu lăng
lentil in Myanmar: ပဲနီလေး pai:nile:

Examples of lentil in a sentence

In ancient Greece, lentils were believed to stimulate desire.1961, Harry E. Wedeck, Dictionary of Aphrodisiacs, New York: The Citadel Press, page 136:
Wild nuts, peas, vetch, a legume which had edible seed pods, and grasses were often combined with pulses like beans or lentils, the most commonly identified ingredient, and at times, wild mustard.2022 November 22, Katie Hunt, “Neanderthals cooked meals with pulses 70,000 years ago”, in CNN:

All 21 example sentences with lentil

Synonyms of lentil

dragée

Forms of lentil

plural	lentils

Plural of lentil: lentils

Origin of lentil

From Middle English lentile, from Old French lentille from Latin lenticula, diminutive of lēns, from a pre-Indo-European substrate source shared by German Linse, Ancient Greek λάθυρος (láthuros) and Lithuanian lęšis. Doublet of lenticula.

Words formed from lentil

Phrases with lentil

Words that rhyme with lentil

48 more rhymesFewer rhymes

Questions about lentil

What does lentil mean?: Lentil means any of several plants of the genus Lens, especially Lens culinaris, from southwest Asia, that have edible, lens-shaped seeds within flattened pods.
What is lentil in Hindi?: Lentil in Hindi is दाल (dāl). See Lentil meaning in Hindi.
How do you use lentil in a sentence?: In ancient Greece, lentils were believed to stimulate desire.
What part of speech is lentil?: Lentil is a noun.
How do you pronounce lentil?: Lentil is pronounced /ˈlɛntəl/.
What is the plural of lentil?: The plural of lentil is lentils.

Words near lentil in the dictionary

Adapted from Wiktionary: lentil (page history and authors); دال (Urdu) (page history and authors); lentil (Malayalam Wiktionary) (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: LL-Q1860 (eng)-Vealhurl-lentil.wav.

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