belle
/bɛl/noun
belle is spelled B-E-L-L-E: 5 letters and one syllable. It appears 6.2 times per million words in written English, the 9,735th most frequent word form (wordfreq, 2021 data, counting Belle, the name). As a noun, belle means “An attractive woman” (English Wiktionary, September 2026). The plural of belle is belles.
How many letters and syllables are in belle?
| Letters | 5: B-E-L-L-E |
|---|---|
| Syllables | 1 (from its American pronunciation) |
| In writing | 6.2 times per million words; the 9,735th most frequent word form |
| Wrong spellings searched | none measured in search |
| Pairs people search | |
| Sounds like |
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).
How common is belle?
Belle appears 6.2 times per million words in written English, the 9,735th most frequent word form in the list. The list counts every capitalisation together, so this includes Belle, the name.
Source: written frequency: wordfreq 3.1 (a 2021 snapshot of Wikipedia, subtitles, news, books, web text and social media).
How do you pronounce belle?
- /bɛl/
Belle 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: LL-Q1860_(eng)-Vealhurl-belle.wav, LL-Q1860_(eng)-Wodencafe-belle.wav, Wikimedia Commons (author and licence on each file's page).
Words people confuse with belle
Word pairs people search, with the monthly searches for “a vs b” (G: Google, B: Bing, United States).
Sounds like: bell (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).
Forms of belle
- belles plural
Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract).
What does belle mean?
The meanings the English Wiktionary records, quoted as written there (source below).
noun
- 1
An attractive woman.
In her new dress she felt like the belle of the ball.
- 2
datedA fellow gay man.
Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract).
Belle in Spanish, French, German and Portuguese
In the sense beautiful woman:
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 belle come from?
From French belle (“beautiful”), from Latin bella.
Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract).