Speakur

Word Pronunciation & Dictionary

meal

/ˈmiːl/

Word Rarity Uncommon

Frequency: Zipf frequency 4.48 in modern English

Syllables
meal
IPA
/ˈmiːl/
6
Scrabble Score
4
Letters
1
Syllables
4
Unique Chars

Meaning

noun

Food that is prepared and eaten, usually at a specific time, and usually in a comparatively large quantity.

Countable

noun

Food served or eaten as a repast.

Countable

noun

A break taken by a police officer in order to eat.

Informal; Uncountable

noun

A time or an occasion.

Countable; Obsolete

noun

The ground-up edible part of various grains, used as a basis of food or feed; either flour or a coarser blend than flour (usage varies).

Countable; Uncountable

noun

Any of various similarly granular materials prepared from other sources, such as bones or wood.

Countable; Uncountable

noun

Any of various other granular or powdery materials, either ground by humans or occurring in nature, named figuratively after a resemblance to grain meal.

Countable; Uncountable

verb

To yield or be plentiful in meal.

Intransitive verb; Obsolete

Example Sentences

Etymology

From Middle English mel, from Old English mǣl (“measure, time, occasion, set time, time for eating, meal”), from Proto-West Germanic *māl, from Proto-Germanic *mēlą, from Proto-Indo-European *meh₁- (“to measure”). Cognate with West Frisian miel, Dutch maal (“meal, time, occurrence”), German Mal (“time”), Mahl (“meal”), Norwegian Bokmål mål (“meal”), Swedish mål (“meal”); and (from Proto-Indo-European) with Ancient Greek μέτρον (métron, “measure”), Latin mensus, Russian ме́ра (méra, “measure”), Lithuanian mẽtas. Related to Old English mǣþ (“measure, degree, proportion”).

Origin

Word Breakdown

  • Root: *meh₁-, mel, mǣl, *māl, *mēlą, *melh₂-

Usage

Inflected Forms

meals (plural) meals (present, singular) mealing (participle, present) mealed (participle, past) mealed (past)

Derived Forms

daymeal guestmeal intermeal intrameal mealer mealless mealprep mealtide mealtime mealware midmeal nonmeal

Phrases

barium meal box meal cat in the meal-tub cheat meal enjoy your meal family meal full-course meal happy meal

Frequently Paired Words

chips with everything meat and three meat and two veg meat and potatoes :Category:Meals snack flour[Appendix:Glossary

Synonyms

meal mese refection repast

Rhymes With

feel real deal we'll steel appeal wheel ideal reveal steal seal she'll

Questions

How do you pronounce meal?
The recorded pronunciation is /ˈmiːl/.
What does meal mean?
Food that is prepared and eaten, usually at a specific time, and usually in a comparatively large quantity.
Where does meal come from?
It is traced to Middle English.

How to pronounce meal

  1. Open the pronunciation page — Open the Speakur entry for “meal”.
  2. Read the phonetic spelling — Read the IPA spelling (/ˈmiːl/) so you know which sounds to aim for.
  3. Play the audio — Click Play to hear reference audio for “meal”.
  4. Repeat and practice — Say “meal” aloud, matching stress and vowels until it feels natural.