belle

From French belle (“beautiful”), from Latin bella.

• IPA^(key): /bɛl/

• Audio (Southern England):

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• Audio (US):

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• Rhymes: -ɛl
• Homophone: bell

belle (plural belles)

1. An attractive woman.

   In her new dress she felt like the belle of the ball.

2. (dated) A fellow gay man.^[1]

• “belle”, in OneLook Dictionary Search.

• Lebel

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belle

1. (dated or formal) singular present subjunctive of bellen

• IPA^(key): /bɛl/

• Audio:

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• Homophones: bel, belles

belle

1. feminine singular of beau

• English: belle
• English: Belle

belle f (plural belles)

1. beautiful woman, belle, beauty
2. (Louisiana) girlfriend

(girlfriend):

• beau
• blonde
• femme
• gars
• homme

• Belle au bois dormant
• faire la belle
• jouer la belle
• se faire la belle

• “belle”, in Trésor de la langue française informatisé [Digitized Treasury of the French Language], 2012.

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• Rhymes: -ɛlə

belle

1. inflection of bellen:
   1. first-person singular present
   2. first/third-person singular subjunctive I
   3. singular imperative

belle (comparative plus belle, superlative le plus belle)

1. beautiful

• IPA^(key): /ˈbɛl.le/
• Rhymes: -ɛlle
• Hyphenation: bèl‧le

belle

1. feminine plural of bello

belle f

1. plural of bella

From bellus (“pretty, handsome”).

bellē (comparative bellius, superlative bellissimē)

1. well, neatly, perfectly
2. prettily, delightfully

• perbellē

• bellus
• bonus

• “belle”, in Charlton T. Lewis and Charles Short (1879) A Latin Dictionary, Oxford: Clarendon Press
• “belle”, in Charlton T. Lewis (1891) An Elementary Latin Dictionary, New York: Harper & Brothers
• "belle", in Charles du Fresne du Cange’s Glossarium Mediæ et Infimæ Latinitatis (augmented edition with additions by D. P. Carpenterius, Adelungius and others, edited by Léopold Favre, 1883–1887)
• belle in Gaffiot, Félix (1934) Dictionnaire illustré latin-français, Hachette.

• Audio (Jersey):

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belle

1. feminine singular of bieau
2. feminine singular of biau

• bell

From Proto-West Germanic *bellā, from Proto-Germanic *bellǭ.

• IPA^(key): /ˈbel.le/, [ˈbeɫ.ɫe]

belle f

1. bell

   bellan hringan

   to ring a bell

   • late 10th century, Ælfric, "St. Benedict, Abbot"

     Se dēofol wearp ānne stān tō þǣre bellan þæt hēo eall tōsprang.

     The Devil threw a rock at the bell so it broke into pieces.

Weak feminine (n-stem):

• Middle English: belle
  • Scots: bell
  • English: bell
    • → Fiji Hindi: belo
    • → Japanese: ベル (beru)
    • → Korean: 벨 (bel)

belle

1. second-person singular imperative of bellemek