belle
noun
Simple meaning
A young woman who is the most charming and beautiful of several rivals.
Pronunciation
Say it like this:
behlIPA pronunciation (US)
ˈbɛl
This word is pronounced essentially the same in American and British English, so one transcription covers both.
IPA (International Phonetic Alphabet) is a standard way of writing speech sounds.
Definition
Everyday modern meanings first, grouped by part of speech.
noun
A young woman who is the most charming and beautiful of several rivals
“She was the belle of the ball.”
An attractive woman.
Word at a Glance
- Difficulty
- B2 · Upper Intermediate
- Frequency
- Moderately Common
- Typical Use
- Neutral / general English
Word Aura™
How this word commonly comes across.
Aura for this meaning
This meaning: A young woman who is the most charming and beautiful of several rivals
Used this way, belle is a common word with a clearly warm, approving pull. It carries more force than its gentler alternatives. It turns up most in personal or emotional discussion and literature or storytelling contexts.
“She was the belle of the ball.”
- Emotional tone
- Positive
- Formality
- Neutral
- Intensity
- Strong
- How common
- Common
- Connotation
- Warm and admiring
- Usage feel
- Everyday but emotionally strong
Where it naturally appears
- Personal/emotional discussion
- Literature/storytelling
Usage note
Belle is emotionally heavy: it suggests deep or lasting feeling, not a passing mood, so it can overstate a small reaction.
Natural pattern: belle of …
Word Aura describes common impressions, not a measurement. Tone changes with sentence, speaker, relationship and situation.
More ways to use belle
- “She was the belle of the ball.”noun
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Common Patterns and Combinations
How this word naturally appears with others.
Word Family
Related forms, grouped by how they connect.
Inflected forms
Grammatical variations of the same word.
A noisy mock serenade (made by banging pans and kettles) to a newly married couple.
Word family
Words built from the same root.
The region of the body of a vertebrate between the thorax and the pelvis.
Compound terms
Established multiword terms.
Pantropical climber having white fragrant nocturnal flowers.
Of southwestern Europe.
United States operatic soprano (born in 1929).
Creative writing valued for esthetic content.
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Dictionary data from Wiktionary via the Free Dictionary API. Simple meanings, combinations and word intelligence are built from verified reference data, no AI is used to load this page.