bile
/ˈbaɪ.əl/
Word Rarity
Rare
Frequency: 3.21 in modern English
6
Scrabble Score
4
Letters
1
Syllables
4
Unique Chars
Meaning
noun
A bitter brownish-yellow or greenish-yellow secretion produced by the liver, stored in the gall bladder, and discharged into the duodenum where it aids the process of digestion.
Uncountable
noun
Either of two of the four humours, black bile or yellow bile, in ancient and medieval physiology.
Uncountable
verb
Example Sentences
- "I shall tire of my Journal if it is to contain nothing but biles and plasters and unguents."
- "He spake out of the Pythonesse, Act. 16. 17. brought downe fire from heauen, and consumed Iobs sheepe 7000. and his seruants, raised a storme, strooke the house wherein his sonnes and daughters feasted with their elder brother, smote the foure corners of it, with the ruine whereof they all were destroyed, and perished: and ouerspread the body of that holy Saint their father with botches[t] and biles from the sole of his foot to the crowne of his head."
- "We pretty near biled ourselves and Miss Euly done got her bes' pink apron stained, an' I dropped Sis Suky's big kitchen spoon in de hogshead of sand […]"
Etymology
From Middle French bile, from Latin bīlis (“bile”). Partially displaced native English gall (“bile”), from Middle English galle, from Old English galla, ġealla (“gall, bile”).
Origin
Word Breakdown
- Root: bile, bīlis, *būlǭ
Usage
Subject
Wiktionary places this term in Medicine, Chemistry.
Inflected Forms
Derived Forms
Phrases
Frequently Paired Words
Wiktionary’s coverage of Bile terms