eel
/iːl/noun, verb
eel is spelled E-E-L: 3 letters and one syllable. It appears 1.7 times per million words in written English, the 21,516th most frequent word form (wordfreq, 2021 data). As a noun, eel means “Any freshwater fish of the order Anguilliformes, which are elongated and resemble snakes” (English Wiktionary, September 2026). The plural of eel is eels.
How many letters and syllables are in eel?
| Letters | 3: E-E-L |
|---|---|
| Syllables | 1 (from its American pronunciation) |
| In writing | 1.7 times per million words; the 21,516th most frequent word form |
| Wrong spellings searched | none measured in search |
| Same letters |
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); rhymes and same-letter words are computed by PlainSpell from its own word list.
How common is eel?
Eel appears 1.7 times per million words in written English, the 21,516th 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 eel?
- /iːl/
Eel 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-eel.ogg, Wikimedia Commons (author and licence on each file's page).
What rhymes with eel?
No other word on PlainSpell ends in the same sounds as eel.
Spelled with the same letters in another order: lee, ele.
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 eel
- eels plural, present, singular, he/she/it
- eeling participle, present
- eeled participle, past
Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract).
What does eel mean?
The meanings the English Wiktionary records, quoted as written there (source below).
noun
- 1
Any freshwater fish of the order Anguilliformes, which are elongated and resemble snakes.
- 2
A European eel (Anguilla anguilla).
- 3
An electric eel (any knifefish of the genus Electrophorus)
- 4
A swamp eel (any fish in the family Synbranchidae).
- 5
An earthworm eel, also called the spineless eel (any fish in the family Chaudhuriidae).
- 6
A spiny eel (any fish in the family Mastacembelidae).
- 7
A deep-sea spiny eel (any fish in the family Notacanthidae).
- 8
A conger eel, also called the Congo eel, amphiuma, and Congo snake (any salamander of the genus Amphiuma).
verb
- 1
To fish for eels.
- 2
To move with a sinuous motion like that of an eel.
Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract).
Eel in Spanish, French, German and Portuguese
In the sense any fish of the order Anguilliformes:
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 eel come from?
From Middle English el (“eel”), from Old English ǣl (“eel”), from Proto-West Germanic *āl (“eel”), from Proto-Germanic *ēlaz (“eel”), which is of unknown origin.
Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract).