bel
1
9.9
- noun
- /bɛl/
- Specialized
:
bel
- Dear my bel, you'll get your wings one of these days
Examples
-
The bel part comes out with particular tenderness in his pronunciation.
Fiction book (1999) -
I'm only in the er... year bel... above in school.
-
It's "No-bel".
-
And then, of course, stahr has to face the ultimate indignity of throwing up all over Cecelia's beautiful bel air garden.
-
"Is-a-bel," Betsy murmured as she stepped lightly across the threshold.
Fiction book (1998) -
Marriage to a suitable heiress, however, was the most assured means of securing a "bel établissement."
Academic text (1994) -
The sound of the fireworks was measured at three bels above the normal level.
-
A unit of sound level is called a bel in his honor.
-
Sound levels are measured in tenths of a bel or decibels.
Synonyms
3
8.8
A unit of sound equal to ten decibels
Compounds
- Specialized
1
9.1
A smooth, lyrical way of singing in opera that shows a pure voice and quick, skillful notes
- Literature
An extra book sometimes added to the Book of Daniel with three stories about Bel, a dragon, and Daniel
Surface Forms
Etymology
Bel is named for inventor Bell, Alexander Graham Bell, who worked with sound and the telephone, so the unit measures sound and signal levels. The prefix deci- means 'one tenth', so a decibel is one tenth of a bel, which is why engineers use decibels to talk about loudness and power.