glen
/ɡlɛn/noun
glen is spelled G-L-E-N: 4 letters and one syllable. It appears 7.4 times per million words in written English, the 8,669th most frequent word form (wordfreq, 2021 data). As a noun, glen means “A secluded and narrow valley, especially one with a river running through it; a depression between hills; a dale” (English Wiktionary, September 2026). The plural of glen is glens.
How many letters and syllables are in glen?
| Letters | 4: G-L-E-N |
|---|---|
| Syllables | 1 (from its American pronunciation) |
| In writing | 7.4 times per million words; the 8,669th most frequent word form |
| Wrong spellings searched | none measured in search |
| Rhymes with | |
| 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 glen?
Glen appears 7.4 times per million words in written English, the 8,669th 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 glen?
- US /ɡlɛn/
- /ɡlɪn/
Glen 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-au-glen.ogg, LL-Q1860_(eng)-Vealhurl-Glen.wav, Wikimedia Commons (author and licence on each file's page).
What rhymes with glen?
11 words on PlainSpell end in the same sounds as glen from its last stressed vowel (/ɛn/):
Spelled with the same letters in another order: leng, genl.
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 glen
- glens plural
Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract).
What does glen mean?
The meanings the English Wiktionary records, quoted as written there (source below).
noun
- 1
A secluded and narrow valley, especially one with a river running through it; a depression between hills; a dale.
noun
- 1
Ellipsis of Glen of Imaal Terrier.
Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract).
Glen in Spanish, French, German and Portuguese
In the sense secluded and narrow valley:
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 glen come from?
From Middle English glen, borrowed from Irish gleann and Scottish Gaelic gleann, Old and Middle Irish glend, glenn (“mountain valley”), from Proto-Celtic *glendos (“valley”), hypothetically from Proto-Indo-European *glend- (“shore”) but the word may have been borrowed from a non-Indo-European substrate language. Compare Manx glion, Welsh glyn. Doublet of glyn.
Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract).