bel
French, noun/bɛl/
bel is spelled B-E-L (3 letters) and appears 37 times per million words in written French, the 2,223rd most frequent French word form (wordfreq, 2021 data). Bel is a French masculine noun meaning “bel (unit of sound intensity)” (English Wiktionary, September 2026). It is also a form of beau used before a masculine noun that starts with a vowel sound. The French Wiktionary (Wiktionnaire) defines it as “Unité sans dimension, de symbole B, utilisée pour exprimer les rapports de deux grandeurs de même espèce. Le…”.
What does bel mean in English?
noun
- 1
masculinebel (unit of sound intensity)
adjective
- 1
form of beau used before a masculine noun that starts with a vowel sound
Source: English Wiktionary, French section, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0).
How French dictionaries define it
noun: 1. Unité sans dimension, de symbole B, utilisée pour exprimer les rapports de deux grandeurs de même espèce. Le bel est le logarithme décimal de ce rapport : autrement dit, un rapport de 10:1 vaut 1 bel. Les unités pratiques les plus courantes sont le décibel (dB) et le centibel (cB).
adjective: 1. Variante de beau devant une voyelle.
The definition in the French Wiktionary (Wiktionnaire), in French.
Source: French Wiktionary (Wiktionnaire), dump of September 1, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org.
Forms of bel
- bels plural
- beau singular masculine
- beaux plural masculine
- belle singular feminine
- belles plural feminine
Source: English Wiktionary and French Wiktionary (Wiktionnaire) (dumps of September 2, 2026 and September 1, 2026).
How do you pronounce bel?
- /bɛl/
- \bɛl\
- [bɛl]
Sources: English Wiktionary, French Wiktionary (Wiktionnaire) (dumps of September 2, 2026 and September 1, 2026); recordings from Wikimedia Commons.
English words that translate to bel
Source: the translation tables of the English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026.
How common is bel in French?
bel appears 37 times per million words in written French.
Source: written frequency: wordfreq 3.1 (a 2021 snapshot of Wikipedia, subtitles, news, books, web text and social media).