ring a bell
ring a bell verb: to seem at least vaguely familiar.
Verb
ring a bell (third-person singular simple present rings a bell, present participle ringing a bell, simple past rang a bell, past participle rung a bell)
- To seem at least vaguely familiar.
- His face rings a bell. I wonder if I know him from somewhere.
- Our boy tells me Fring took him there to visit one of the patients, someone Pinkman says you'll definitely remember — Tio Salamanca. Old guy in a wheelchair? Uh... doesn't talk, rings a bell. Huh — I mean, does that ring a bell? I mean, the guy actually has to ring a bell.2011, Vince Gilligan, “Face Off”, in Breaking Bad, season 4, episode 13 (television production), spoken by Saul Goodman (Bob Odenkirk)
- To spark a previously forgotten memory.
- Used other than figuratively or idiomatically: see ring, a, bell.
Forms of ring a bell
| third-person singular present | rings a bell |
|---|---|
| present participle | ringing a bell |
| past | rang a bell |
| past participle | rung a bell |
| alternative form | ring bells |
Questions about ring a bell
- What does ring a bell mean?
- Ring a bell means to seem at least vaguely familiar.
- What part of speech is ring a bell?
- Ring a bell is a verb.
- What is the past tense of ring a bell?
- The past tense of ring a bell is rang a bell.
Words near ring a bell in the dictionary
Source and license
Adapted from Wiktionary: ring a bell (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.
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Pronunciation audio from Wikimedia Commons, each file under its own free license: En-au-ring a bell.ogg.
Cite this entry: “ring a bell.” Word.ws, https://word.ws/ring_a_bell. Based on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.