veal
/viːl/noun, verb
veal is spelled V-E-A-L: 4 letters and one syllable. It appears 1.2 times per million words in written English, the 26,092nd most frequent word form (wordfreq, 2021 data). As a noun, veal means “The flesh of a calf (i.e. a young bovine) used for food” (English Wiktionary, September 2026). The plural of veal is veals.
How many letters and syllables are in veal?
| Letters | 4: V-E-A-L |
|---|---|
| Syllables | 1 (from its American pronunciation) |
| In writing | 1.2 times per million words; the 26,092nd 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 veal?
Veal appears 1.2 times per million words in written English, the 26,092nd 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 veal?
- /viːl/
Veal 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-veal.ogg, LL-Q1860_(eng)-Vealhurl-veal.wav, Wikimedia Commons (author and licence on each file's page).
What rhymes with veal?
No other word on PlainSpell ends in the same sounds as veal.
Spelled with the same letters in another order: vale, eval, lave, leva, avel.
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 veal
- veals plural, present, singular, he/she/it
- vealing participle, present
- vealed participle, past
Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract).
What does veal mean?
The meanings the English Wiktionary records, quoted as written there (source below).
noun
- 1
The flesh of a calf (i.e. a young bovine) used for food.
- 2
slangvulgarThe female genitalia.
verb
- 1
To raise a calf for meat production.
Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract).
Veal in Spanish, French, German and Portuguese
In the sense flesh of a calf:
| Language | Words |
|---|---|
| French | veau |
| German | Kalbfleisch |
| Portuguese | vitela |
| Spanish | ternera |
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 veal come from?
From Middle English veel, from Anglo-Norman veel, from Latin vitellus, diminutive of vitulus (“calf”). Doublet of vitellus.
Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract).