mel

• IPA^(key): /mɛl/

• Audio (Southern England):

  (file)

• Rhymes: -ɛl
• Homophones: Mel, mell

Shortening of melody.

mel (plural mels)

1. (psychoacoustics) A unit of pitch on a scale of pitches perceived by listeners to be equally spaced from one another.

• Mel scale on Wikipedia.Wikipedia

From Latin mel (“honey”). Doublet of mell.

mel (uncountable)

1. Honey, when used as an ingredient in cosmetic products.

• EML, Elm, L.E.M., LEM, Lem, MLE, elm

Borrowed through Vulgar Latin from Latin milium.

• Audio:

  (file)

mel m (definite meli)

1. common millet

From Proto-Celtic *meli (“honey”) (compare Welsh mêl, Old Irish mil), from Proto-Indo-European *mélid, whence also Latin mel (“honey”).

• IPA^(key): /mɛl/

mel m

1. honey

• IPA^(key): (Central, Balearic, Valencia) [ˈmɛl]

• Audio (Catalonia):

  (file)

Inherited from Vulgar Latin *melem m or f, from Latin mel n.

mel f (plural mels)

1. honey

Inherited from Late Latin mēlum, variant of mālum (“apple”).

mel m (plural mels)

1. (Balearic, anatomy) cheekbone

   Synonym: pòmul

mel

1. (archaic) contraction of me el (in medieval Catalan, nowadays written as me'l)

• “mel”, in Diccionari de la llengua catalana [Dictionary of the Catalan Language] (in Catalan), second edition, Institute of Catalan Studies [Catalan: Institut d'Estudis Catalans], April 2007
• “mel”, in Gran Diccionari de la Llengua Catalana, Grup Enciclopèdia Catalana, 2025.
• “mel” in Diccionari normatiu valencià, Acadèmia Valenciana de la Llengua.
• “mel” in Diccionari català-valencià-balear, Antoni Maria Alcover and Francesc de Borja Moll, 1962.

• IPA^(key): [ˈméːɬ]

mēl inan

1. second-person singular possessive singular of ēlli; (it is) your liver.

From Proto-Brythonic *mel, from Proto-Celtic *meli (“honey”) (compare Welsh mêl, Old Irish mil), from Proto-Indo-European *mélid, whence also Latin mel (“honey”).

mel m

1. honey

• IPA^(key): [ˈmɛl]

mel

1. second-person singular imperative of mlít

From Latin mīlle.

mel

1. thousand

From Old Norse mjǫl, from Proto-Germanic *melwą, from Proto-Indo-European *melh₂- (“to grind, rub, break up”). Related to male (“grind, crush”), mølle (“mill”) (via Latin), and to muld (“soil”).

mel n (singular definite melet, not used in plural form)

1. flour

• “mel” in Den Danske Ordbog
• “mel” in Ordbog over det danske Sprog

mel

1. eye

From Old Galician-Portuguese mel, from Vulgar Latin *melem m or f, from Latin mel n.

• IPA^(key): [ˈmɛl]

mel m (plural meles)

1. honey

• Ernesto Xosé González Seoane, María Álvarez de la Granja, Ana Isabel Boullón Agrelo (2006–2022) “mel”, in Dicionario de Dicionarios do galego medieval (in Galician), Santiago de Compostela: Instituto da Lingua Galega
• Xavier Varela Barreiro, Xavier Gómez Guinovart (2006–2018) “mel”, in Corpus Xelmírez - Corpus lingüístico da Galicia medieval (in Galician), Santiago de Compostela: Instituto da Lingua Galega
• Antón Luís Santamarina Fernández, editor (2006–2013), “mel”, in Dicionario de Dicionarios da lingua galega [Dictionary of Dictionaries of the Galician language] (in Galician), Santiago de Compostela: Instituto da Lingua Galega
• Antón Luís Santamarina Fernández, Ernesto Xosé González Seoane, María Álvarez de la Granja, editors (2003–2018), “mel”, in Tesouro informatizado da lingua galega (in Galician), Santiago de Compostela: Instituto da Lingua Galega
• Rosario Álvarez Blanco, editor (2014–2024), “mel”, in Tesouro do léxico patrimonial galego e portugués (in Galician), Santiago de Compostela: Instituto da Lingua Galega, →ISSN

mēl

1. romanization of 𐌼𐌴𐌻

From Vulgar Latin *melem m or f, from Latin mel n.

mel

1. honey

• AIS: Sprach- und Sachatlas Italiens und der Südschweiz [Linguistic and Ethnographic Atlas of Italy and Southern Switzerland] – map 1159: “il miele” – on navigais-web.pd.istc.cnr.it

From Proto-Italic *meli, from Proto-Indo-European *mel-it (“honey”), with the athematic suffix *-it that indicates comestible substances (compare Proto-Indo-European *h₂élbʰ-it (“barley”) or Proto-Indo-European *sép-it (“wheat”)). Cognate with Ancient Greek μέλι (méli), Gothic 𐌼𐌹𐌻𐌹𐌸 (miliþ), Old Armenian մեղր (mełr), Hittite [script needed] (milit), Luwian [script needed] (mallit-).^[1]

• (Classical Latin) IPA^(key): [ˈmɛɫ]
• (modern Italianate Ecclesiastical) IPA^(key): [ˈmɛl]

mel n (genitive mellis); third declension

1. honey
   • 8 CE, Ovid, Fasti 3.743–744:

     colligit errantēs et in arbore claudit inānī
     Liber et inventī praemia mellis habet.

     Liber gathers the wandering [bees] and confines them in a hollow tree,
     and he has the rewards of discovering honey.
     (See Liber – the Greek Dionysus or Roman Bacchus – and The Discovery of Honey by Bacchus.)

   • 405 CE, Jerome, Vulgate Matthew 3:4:

     [...] esca autem eius erat lucustae et mel silvestre.

     And his food was locusts and wild honey.

   • c. 189 BCE, Plautus, Truculentus 371, (ed. by Friedric Leo, Plauti Comoediae vol. 2, 1896, Berlin: Weidmann):

     Heia, hoc est melle dulci dulcius.

     Ah! This is sweeter than sweet honey.

2. (figuratively) sweetness, pleasantness
   • c. 35 CE – 100 CE, Quintilian, Institutio Oratoria 3.1.5:

     Sed nos veremur ne parum hic liber mellis et absinthii multum habere videatur

     But I fear that this book will have too little sweetness and too much wormwood.

3. (figuratively, term of endearment) darling, sweet, honey
   • c. 190 BCE, Plautus, Bacchides 18:

     cor meum, spes mea / mel meum, suavitudo, cibus, gaudium

     My heart, my hope, my honey, sweetness, food, delight.

Third-declension noun (neuter, i-stem).

• (darling, honey): mellītus
• (sweetness): dulcēdō, dulcitās, dulcitūdō, dulcor, mellinia

• Vulgar Latin: *melem m or f (see there for further descendants)

• “mel”, in Charlton T. Lewis and Charles Short (1879) A Latin Dictionary, Oxford: Clarendon Press
• “mel”, in Charlton T. Lewis (1891) An Elementary Latin Dictionary, New York: Harper & Brothers
• mel in Gaffiot, Félix (1934) Dictionnaire illustré latin-français, Hachette.
• Carl Meißner, Henry William Auden (1894) Latin Phrase-Book‎^[1], London: Macmillan and Co.
  • somebody's darling: mel ac deliciae alicuius (Fam. 8. 8. 1)
    

From English mail.

• IPA^(key): /ˈmel/ [ˈmel]

mél (Jawi spelling ميل, plural mel-mel)

1. (uncommon, mostly in compounds) mail

   Synonyms: pos, surat

• “mel” in Pusat Rujukan Persuratan Melayu | Malay Literary Reference Centre, Kuala Lumpur: Dewan Bahasa dan Pustaka, 2017.

• mele, melle
• mal, male, meyle (chiefly Northern)
• mæl, mæle, meal (Early Middle English)

From Old English mǣl, from Proto-West Germanic *māl, from Proto-Germanic *mēlą.

• IPA^(key): /mɛːl/

mel (plural meles)

1. A time, occasion or event.
2. The occasion when a meal is consumed; mealtime.
3. A meal or feast.

• English: meal
• Scots: meal
• Yola: meale, mele
• → Irish: béile

• “mēl, n.(2).”, in MED Online, Ann Arbor, Mich.: University of Michigan, 2007.

• mjøl (also Nynorsk)

From Danish mel, from Old Norse mjǫl.

mel n (definite singular melet)

1. flour, meal

• beinmel
• fiskemel
• hvetemel
• melaktig

• “mel” in The Bokmål Dictionary.

mel

1. present of mala

From Latin mel, from Vulgar Latin *melem m or f, from Latin mel n.

• IPA^(key): /ˈmɛl/

mel m (uncountable)

1. honey
   • a. 1284, Alfonso X of Castile, Cantigas de Santa Maria, Códice de los músicos, cantiga 278 (facsimile):

     […] que ſon mais doceſ ca mel […]

     […] which are sweeter than honey […]

• Galician: mel
• Portuguese: mel

• Xavier Varela Barreiro, Xavier Gómez Guinovart (2006–2018) “mel[[:>:|:>:]]”, in Corpus Xelmírez - Corpus lingüístico da Galicia medieval (in Galician), Santiago de Compostela: Instituto da Lingua Galega
• Ernesto Xosé González Seoane, María Álvarez de la Granja, Ana Isabel Boullón Agrelo (2006–2022) “mel”, in Dicionario de Dicionarios do galego medieval (in Galician), Santiago de Compostela: Instituto da Lingua Galega
• Antônio Geraldo da Cunha (2020–2025) “mel”, in Vocabulário histórico-cronológico do Português Medieval (in Portuguese), Rio de Janeiro: Fundação Casa de Rui Barbosa

From Proto-Brythonic *mel, from Proto-Celtic *meli, from Proto-Indo-European *mélit.

mel m

1. honey

• Middle Welsh: mel
  • Welsh: mêl

Inherited from Old Galician-Portuguese mel m, from Vulgar Latin *melem m or f, from Latin mel n.

Compare Galician mel m, Spanish miel f.

• Rhymes: (Brazil) -ɛw, (Portugal) -ɛl
• Homophone: mele (Portugal)
• Hyphenation: mel

• Audio (Portugal):

  (file)

mel m (plural méis or meles)

1. honey

   Synonym: mel-de-abelha

   • 2012, Luís Fernando Veríssimo, “A tia que caiu no Sena”, in Diálogos Impossíveis, Rio de Janeiro: Editora Objetiva, →ISBN, page 61:

     A conversa era sobre parentes, os parentes estranhos, interessantes ou, por qualquer razão, notáveis de cada um. Alguém já tinha contado que um parente comia favo de mel com abelha dentro.

     The conversation was about relatives, each one's weird, interesting or, for some reason, remarkable relatives. Someone had already said that a relative [of his] ate honeycomb with the bee inside.

2. (chiefly Cape Verde, Madeira, São Tomé and Príncipe) molasses

   Synonyms: mel-de-cana, melaço

• In many regions where the sugar industry is or was of particular importance, the word mel without any adjectives often refers to molasses, which most other dialects call melaço or mel-de-cana (literally, “cane sugar”) instead. In those regions, bee's honey is often specifically called mel-de-abelha.

Borrowed from English mel.

mel m (plural meli)

1. mel

• mèl (Sursilvan)
• meal (Sutsilvan)
• mêl (Surmiran)

From Vulgar Latin *melem m, from Latin mel n.

mel m (plural mels)

1. (Rumantsch Grischun) honey
2. (Rumantsch Grischun) jam

• (honey): mel d'avieuls

• AIS: Sprach- und Sachatlas Italiens und der Südschweiz [Linguistic and Ethnographic Atlas of Italy and Southern Switzerland] – map 1159: “il miele” – on navigais-web.pd.istc.cnr.it

Borrowed from French mer (“sea”), with the 'r' turned into 'l'.

mel (nominative plural mels)

1. sea