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PlainSpell

bell

/bɛl/noun, verb

bell is spelled B-E-L-L: 4 letters and one syllable. It appears 39 times per million words in written English, the 2,523rd most frequent word form (wordfreq, 2021 data). As a noun, bell means “A percussive instrument made of metal or other hard material, typically but not always in the shape of an inverted cup with a flared rim, which…” (English Wiktionary, September 2026). The plural of bell is bells.

How many letters and syllables are in bell?

Letters4: B-E-L-L
Syllables1 (from its American pronunciation)
In writing39 times per million words; the 2,523rd most frequent word form
Wrong spellings searchednone measured in search
Pairs people search
Sounds like
Rhymes with

Sources: letters and syllables from the English Wiktionary's hyphenation or pronunciation and the CMU Pronouncing Dictionary; written frequency: wordfreq 3.1 (a 2021 snapshot of Wikipedia, subtitles, news, books, web text and social media); Bing searches in the United States: the average month from September 2025 to August 2026 (Microsoft Advertising keyword data through DataForSEO, read September 30, 2026); rhymes and same-letter words are computed by PlainSpell from its own word list.

How common is bell?

Bell appears 39 times per million words in written English, the 2,523rd most frequent word form in the list.

Source: written frequency: wordfreq 3.1 (a 2021 snapshot of Wikipedia, subtitles, news, books, web text and social media).

How do you pronounce bell?

  • US /bɛl/
  • Australia /bel/

Bell has one syllable (counted from its American pronunciation in the CMU Pronouncing Dictionary).

Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract). Recordings: En-us-bell.ogg, Wikimedia Commons (author and licence on each file's page).

Words people confuse with bell

Word pairs people search, with the monthly searches for “a vs b” (G: Google, B: Bing, United States).

bell vs belle0 B

Sounds like: belle (Wiktionary's homophone list; some hold only in some accents).

Sources: Google and Bing searches (September 2025 to August 2026, through DataForSEO); English Wiktionary (homophones, alternative spellings).

What rhymes with bell?

The 12 most written words on PlainSpell end in the same sounds as bell from its last stressed vowel (/ɛl/):

Computed by PlainSpell from the pronunciations in the English Wiktionary (dump of September 2, 2026): a rhyme shares every sound from the last stressed vowel to the end; ordered by written frequency (wordfreq 3.1).

Forms of bell

  • bells plural, present, singular, he/she/it
  • belling participle, present
  • belled participle, past

Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract).

What does bell mean?

The meanings the English Wiktionary records, quoted as written there (source below).

noun

  1. 1

    A percussive instrument made of metal or other hard material, typically but not always in the shape of an inverted cup with a flared rim, which resonates when struck.

  2. 2

    An instrument that emits a ringing sound, situated on a bicycle's handlebar and used by the cyclist to warn of their presence.

  3. 3

    The sounding of a bell as a signal.

  4. 4

    UKinformalA telephone call.

    I’ll give you a bell later.

  5. 5

    A signal at a school that tells the students when a class is starting or ending.

  6. 6

    The flared end of a brass or woodwind instrument.

  7. 7

    Any of a series of strokes on a bell (or similar), struck every half hour to indicate the time (within a four hour watch)

  8. 8

    The flared end of a pipe, designed to mate with a narrow spigot.

  9. 9

    The bellow or bay of certain animals, such as a hound on the hunt or a stag in rut.

verb

  1. 1

    To attach a bell to.

    Who will bell the cat?

  2. 2

    To shape so that it flares out like a bell.

    to bell a tube

  3. 3

    slangTo telephone.

  4. 4

    To develop bells or corollas; to take the form of a bell; to blossom.

    Hops bell.

  5. 5

    To ring a bell.

  6. 6

    To bellow or roar.

  7. 7

    To utter in a loud manner; to thunder forth.

noun

as Bell
  1. 1

    CanadaUSa telephone utility; a Baby Bell.

Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract).

Bell in Spanish, French, German and Portuguese

LanguageWords
Frenchcloche (percussive instrument), sonnerie (sounding of a bell as a signal), coup de fil (informal: telephone call), pavillon (the flared end of a brass or woodwind instrument), sonnette (an instrument situated on a bicycle's handlebar)
GermanGlocke, Glogg (percussive instrument), Gong, Klingel (sounding of a bell as a signal), Anruf (informal: telephone call)
Portuguesesino, campainha (percussive instrument), badalada (sounding of a bell as a signal), toque (informal: telephone call), sinal (signal at a school)
Spanishcampana, campanilla (percussive instrument), pabellón (the flared end of a brass or woodwind instrument)

Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract). Translations are Wiktionary's, by sense; a linked word has its own PlainSpell page.

Where does bell come from?

Inherited from Middle English belle, from Old English belle, from Proto-West Germanic *bellā, from Proto-Germanic *bellǭ, from Proto-Indo-European *bʰel-.

Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract).

What to look up after bell