navel
/ˈneɪvəl/noun, verb
navel is spelled N-A-V-E-L: 5 letters and 2 syllables. It appears about once in every 1 million words in written English, the 30,789th most frequent word form (wordfreq, 2021 data). People search “naval vs navel” about 480 times a month (Google, United States). As a noun, navel means “The indentation or bump remaining in the abdomen of placental mammals where the umbilical cord was attached before birth” (English Wiktionary, September 2026). The plural of navel is navels.
How many letters and syllables are in navel?
| Letters | 5: N-A-V-E-L |
|---|---|
| Syllables | 2 (from its American pronunciation) |
| In writing | about once in every 1 million words; the 30,789th most frequent word form |
| Wrong spellings searched | none measured in search |
| Pairs people search | |
| Sounds like | |
| 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); 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 navel?
Navel appears about once in every 1 million words in written English, the 30,789th 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 navel?
- /ˈneɪvəl/
- /ˈneɪbəl/
Navel has 2 syllables (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-naval.ogg, LL-Q1860_(eng)-Wodencafe-navel.wav, Wikimedia Commons (author and licence on each file's page).
Words people confuse with navel
Word pairs people search, with the monthly searches for “a vs b” (G: Google, B: Bing, United States).
Sounds like: naval (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 navel?
No other word on PlainSpell ends in the same sounds as navel.
Spelled with the same letters in another order: venal, elvan.
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 navel
- navels plural, present, singular, he/she/it
- naveling US, participle, present
- navelling UK, participle, present
- naveled US, participle, past
- navelled UK, participle, past
Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract).
What does navel mean?
The meanings the English Wiktionary records, quoted as written there (source below).
noun
- 1
The indentation or bump remaining in the abdomen of placental mammals where the umbilical cord was attached before birth.
- 2
The central part or point of anything; the middle.
- 3
A navel orange.
- 4
An eye on the underside of a carronade for securing it to a carriage.
verb
- 1
To be in the middle of a landscape.
Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract).
Navel in Spanish, French, German and Portuguese
In the sense remnant of umbilical cord:
| Language | Words |
|---|---|
| French | nombril, ombilic |
| German | Bauchnabel, Nabel |
| Portuguese | umbigo |
| Spanish | ombligo, pupo, pupu |
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 navel come from?
From Middle English navel, navele, from Old English nafola, from Proto-West Germanic *nabulō, from Proto-Germanic *nabalô (“navel”), from Proto-Indo-European *h₃nóbʰōl (“navel”), diminutive of *h₃nebʰ- (“hub; navel”).
Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract).