Speakur

Word Pronunciation & Dictionary

bbl

/biː biː ˈɛl/

Word Rarity Rare

Frequency: 3.05 in modern English

Syllables
bbl
IPA
/biː biː ˈɛl/
7
Scrabble Score
3
Letters
1
Syllables
2
Unique Chars

Meaning

noun

Abbreviation of barrels and occasionally also of barrel (singular).

noun

Abbreviation of barrels and occasionally also of barrel (singular).

noun

Abbreviation of barrels and occasionally also of barrel (singular).

phrase

Alternative form of BBL.

phrase

Initialism of be back later

noun

Initialism of Brazilian butt lift.

noun

Alternative letter-case form of bbl (“barrels”)

name

Initialism of British Basketball League.

British usage

Example Sentences

Etymology

Often thought to be modified from bl for barrel (b⸺l), reflecting a way of abbreviating that was used especially in previous centuries (compare do for ditto), wherein a doubled letter indicated plural count, as also with p.=page but pp.=pages and l.=line but ll.=lines; this method was used not only in English but also in scholarly New Latin and other modern languages heavily affected thereby, such as with Spanish EE. UU. According to this idea, addition of the suffix -s, as sometimes seen (e.g., 5 bbls or 5 bbls.), would seem to have come from writers who left the unit abbreviation itself unanalyzed (unparsed), thus adding a venially redundant marker of plural, somewhat like with MPGs for miles per gallon. Some sources claim that the abbreviation bbl is from Standard Oil's 42-gallon blue barrels. But this is contested: one source calls this a "persistent oilfield myth" and notes that "the abbreviation 'bbl' had been in use before the 1859 birth of the petroleum industry". Nonetheless, Standard Oil's blue barrels may have helped the bbl abbreviation stick.

Usage

Inflected Forms

bbls (plural)

Frequently Paired Words

BBL hhd.

Synonyms

v barrel

Questions

How do you pronounce bbl?
The recorded pronunciation is /biː biː ˈɛl/.
What does bbl mean?
Abbreviation of barrels and occasionally also of barrel (singular).
Where does bbl come from?
Often thought to be modified from bl for barrel (b⸺l), reflecting a way of abbreviating that was used especially in previous centuries (compare do for ditto), wherein a doubled letter indicated plural count, as also with p.=page but pp.=pages and l.=line but ll.=lines; this method was used not only in English but also in scholarly New Latin and other modern languages heavily affected thereby, such as with Spanish EE. UU. According to this idea, addition of the suffix -s, as sometimes seen (e.g., 5 bbls or 5 bbls.), would seem to have come from writers who left the unit abbreviation itself unanalyzed (unparsed), thus adding a venially redundant marker of plural, somewhat like with MPGs for miles per gallon. Some sources claim that the abbreviation bbl is from Standard Oil's 42-gallon blue barrels. But this is contested: one source calls this a "persistent oilfield myth" and notes that "the abbreviation 'bbl' had been in use before the 1859 birth of the petroleum industry". Nonetheless, Standard Oil's blue barrels may have helped the bbl abbreviation stick.

How to pronounce bbl

  1. Open the pronunciation page — Open the Speakur entry for “bbl”.
  2. Read the phonetic spelling — Read the IPA spelling (/biː biː ˈɛl/) so you know which sounds to aim for.
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  4. Repeat and practice — Say “bbl” aloud, matching stress and vowels until it feels natural.