glue
/ɡlu/noun, verb
glue is spelled G-L-U-E: 4 letters and one syllable. It appears 6.3 times per million words in written English, the 9,594th most frequent word form (wordfreq, 2021 data). As a noun, glue means “A hard gelatin made by boiling bones and hides, used in solution as an adhesive; or any sticky adhesive substance” (English Wiktionary, September 2026). The plural of glue is glues.
How many letters and syllables are in glue?
| Letters | 4: G-L-U-E |
|---|---|
| Syllables | 1 (from its American pronunciation) |
| In writing | 6.3 times per million words; the 9,594th 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 glue?
Glue appears 6.3 times per million words in written English, the 9,594th 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 glue?
- UK /ɡluː/
- British /ɡlʉw/
- US /ɡlu/
Glue 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-glue.ogg, Wikimedia Commons (author and licence on each file's page).
What rhymes with glue?
The 12 most written words on PlainSpell end in the same sounds as glue from its last stressed vowel (/u/):
Spelled with the same letters in another order: luge, gule.
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 glue
- glues plural, present, singular, he/she/it
- gluing participle, present
- glueing participle, present
- glued participle, past
Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract).
What does glue mean?
The meanings the English Wiktionary records, quoted as written there (source below).
noun
- 1
A hard gelatin made by boiling bones and hides, used in solution as an adhesive; or any sticky adhesive substance.
Near-synonyms: adhesive, cement
- 2
Anything that binds two things or people together.
- 3
A viscid secretion on the surface of certain plants.
verb
- 1
To join or attach something using glue.
I need to glue the chair-leg back into place.
- 2
To cause something to adhere closely to; to cause to follow attentively.
His eyes were glued to the screen.
- 3
To apply glue.
Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract).
Glue in Spanish, French, German and Portuguese
| Language | Words |
|---|---|
| French | colle , coller |
| German | Klebstoff, Leim, Kleber , leimen, kleben |
| Portuguese | cola, grude , colar |
| Spanish | cola, goma, pegamento, pegante, resistol , encolar |
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 glue come from?
From Middle English glew, glue, from Old French glu (“glue, birdlime”), from Late Latin glūs (stem glūt-), from Latin glūten. Related to clay. Partially displaced native Old English līm (“glue”) and ġelīman (“to glue”) (whence modern lime).
Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract).