slab
/slæb/noun, verb
slab is spelled S-L-A-B: 4 letters and one syllable. It appears 3.1 times per million words in written English, the 15,146th most frequent word form (wordfreq, 2021 data). As a noun, slab means “A large, flat piece of solid material; a solid object that is large and flat” (English Wiktionary, September 2026). The plural of slab is slabs.
How many letters and syllables are in slab?
| Letters | 4: S-L-A-B |
|---|---|
| Syllables | 1 (from its American pronunciation) |
| In writing | 3.1 times per million words; the 15,146th most frequent word form |
| Wrong spellings searched | none measured in search |
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).
How common is slab?
Slab appears 3.1 times per million words in written English, the 15,146th 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 slab?
- /slæb/
Slab 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-slab.ogg, Wikimedia Commons (author and licence on each file's page).
Forms of slab
- slabs plural, present, singular, he/she/it
- slabbing participle, present
- slabbed participle, past
- slabber comparative
- more slab comparative
- slabbest superlative
- most slab superlative
Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract).
What does slab mean?
The meanings the English Wiktionary records, quoted as written there (source below).
noun
- 1
A large, flat piece of solid material; a solid object that is large and flat.
- 2
A paving stone; a flagstone.
- 3
AustraliaA carton containing 24 cans (chiefly of beer).
- 4
An outside piece taken from a log or timber when sawing it into boards, planks, etc.
- 5
The slack part of a sail.
- 6
A very large wave.
- 7
The amount by which a cache can grow or shrink, used in memory allocation.
- 8
Part of a tectonic plate that is being, or has been, subducted.
- 9
slangA car that has been modified with equipment such as loudspeakers, lights, special paint, hydraulics, and other accessories.
Pull me over, try to check my slab
- 10
A sequence of 12 adjacent bits, serving as a byte in some computers.
- 11
archaicMud, sludge, or other viscous matter.
- 12
BritishobsoleteA bird, the wryneck.
verb
- 1
To make into a slab.
- 2
informalTo destroy (a structure) so completely as to leave only the foundation slab visible.
Multiple homes were slabbed by the monster tornado.
adjective
- 1
archaicThick; viscous.
Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract).
Slab in Spanish, French, German and Portuguese
| Language | Words |
|---|---|
| French | chape , dalle |
| German | Scheibe, Platte, Tafel, Bodenelement, Wandelement, Deckenplatte |
| Portuguese | laje , placa |
| Spanish | plancha, tabla, lámina, llábana, lastra, losa |
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 slab come from?
From Middle English sclabbe, slabbe, of uncertain origin; possibly from *slap, related to dialectal slappel (“portion, piece”), along with slape (“slippery”), sleip (“smooth piece of timber”), borrowed through Old Norse sleipr from Proto-Germanic *slaipaz, from Proto-Indo-European *(s)leyb-. See also Norwegian sleip (“slippery”) and Icelandic sleipur.
Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract).