English Explanatory Dictionary

label

English dictionary entry

Meanings

noun
  1. A small ticket or sign giving information about something to which it is attached or intended to be attached.
  2. A name given to something or someone to categorise them as part of a particular social group.
  3. A company that sells records.
  4. A user-defined alias for a numerical designation, the reverse of an enumeration.
  5. A named place in source code that can be jumped to using a GOTO or equivalent construct.
  6. A charge resembling the strap crossing the horse’s chest from which pendants are hung.
  7. A tassel.
  8. A small strip, especially of paper or parchment (or of some material attached to parchment to carry the seal), but also of iron, brass, land, etc.
  9. A piece of writing added to something, such as a codicil appended to a will.
  10. A brass rule with sights, formerly used with a circumferentor to take altitudes.
  11. The projecting moulding by the sides, and over the tops, of openings in mediaeval architecture.
  12. In mediaeval and later art, a representation of a band or scroll containing an inscription.
verb
  1. To put a label (a ticket or sign) on (something).
  2. To give (a label) to (someone or something) in order to categorise that person or thing.
  3. To replace specific atoms by their isotope in order to track the presence or movement of this isotope through a reaction, metabolic pathway or cell.
  4. To add a detectable substance, either transiently or permanently, to a biological substance in order to track the presence of the label-substance combination either in situ or in vitro
name
  1. a language spoken in Papua New Guinea

Pronunciation

/ˈleɪ.bəl/ [ˈleɪ.bɫ̩] En-us-label.ogg [ˈlɛj.b(ə)ɫ] [ˈleː.b(ə)ɫ] /ˈlæɪ.bəl/ [ˈlæɪ.bɫ̩]

Word forms

label labels labeling labelling labeled labelled

Etymology

From Middle English label (“narrow band, strip of cloth”), from Old French label, lambel (Modern French lambeau), from Frankish *lappā (“torn piece of cloth”), from Proto-Germanic *lappǭ, *lappô (“cloth stuff, rag, scraps, flap, dewlap, lobe, rabbit ear”), from Proto-Indo-European *leb- (“blade”). Cognate with Old High German lappa (“rag, piece of cloth”), Old English læppa (“skirt, flap of a garment”). More at lap.

Synonyms

sign tag ticket category pigeonhole record label lambel categorise compartmentalise peg price

Related words

Wiktionary’s coverage of Label terms

Derived words

biolabel book label charity label clean label clean-label colabel designer label disklabel ecolabel extra-label green label immunolabel interlabel labelable label cloud labeler labelese labeller labelless labelmate matchbox label microlabel mislabel multilabel netlabel off label off-label own label photolabel private label radiolabel record label spin label sublabel vanity label white-label white label relabel

Translations

Catalan: etiquetar Dutch: bestempelen Dutch: categoriseren Esperanto: etikedi Finnish: leimata French: étiqueter French: catégoriser French: classer German: etikettieren Greek: τιτλοφορώ Greek: κατατάσσω σε Greek: βαφτίζω Italian: classificare Italian: bollare Italian: definire Malay: label Norwegian: merke Persian: برچسب زدن Polish: etykietować Portuguese: classificar Romanian: eticheta Romanian: categorisi Russian: ве́шать ярлыки́ Russian: клейми́ть Spanish: tildar de Spanish: etiquetar de / como Swedish: beteckna Swedish: etikettera
This entry uses open data from Wiktionary (CC BY-SA/GFDL). Word forms are used for search and are not indexed as separate pages.
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