noun
- A percussive instrument made of metal or other hard material, typically but not always in the shape of an inverted cup with a flared rim, which resonates when struck.
- The sounding of a bell as a signal.
- A telephone call.
- A signal at a school that tells the students when a class is starting or ending.
- The flared end of a brass or woodwind instrument.
- Any of a series of strokes on a bell (or similar), struck every half hour to indicate the time (within a four hour watch)
- The flared end of a pipe, designed to mate with a narrow spigot.
- A device control code that produces a beep (or rings a small electromechanical bell on older teleprinters etc.).
- Anything shaped like a bell, such as the cup or corolla of a flower.
- The part of the capital of a column included between the abacus and neck molding; also used for the naked core of nearly cylindrical shape, assumed to exist within the leafage of a capital.
- An instrument situated on a bicycle's handlebar, used by the cyclist to warn of his or her presence.
Synonyms: campane, tintinnabule
verb
- To attach a bell to.
- To shape so that it flares out like a bell.
- To telephone.
- To develop bells or corollas; to take the form of a bell; to blossom.
noun
- The bellow or bay of certain animals, such as a hound on the hunt or a stag in rut.
verb
- To bellow or roar.
- To utter in a loud manner; to thunder forth.
noun
- Ship's bells; the strokes on a ship's bell, every half hour, to mark the passage of time.
- Short for bell-bottoms.
Pronunciation
About this word
Bells is a 5-meaning word in English. Medium-length words often have several interesting anagrams.
This page shows the definition of bells along with every other word you can make from its letters. Click the link above to see all anagrams and shorter words formed from the same set of letters.
How to use this page
Every word in our dictionary has its own page like this one. Here you can:
- Read the definition — see what the word means, how it is used in context, and which part of speech it belongs to.
- Hear the pronunciation — when an audio recording is available, press the play button to hear the word spoken aloud.
- Browse synonyms — see related words that share a similar meaning, useful for expanding your vocabulary.
- Find anagrams — click "Other words from bells's letters" to see every word you can spell using the same letters.
Words in word games
If you are playing a word game, knowing whether a word is valid is essential. Bells appears in our 370,000-word English dictionary, which includes most words accepted in Scrabble and Words With Friends. However, always check the official word list for the specific game you are playing, as different games use different dictionaries.
Scrabble
In Scrabble, the valid word lists are the Official Tournament and Club Word List (OTCWL/NWL) for North America and the Collins Scrabble Words (CSW) for international play. Our dictionary covers most words in both lists, but some proper nouns, abbreviations, and offensive terms may differ.
Wordle
Wordle uses its own curated word list that is smaller than the full Scrabble dictionary. If Bells appears here, it may or may not be a valid Wordle answer — but it is a real English word regardless.
Try it interactively
Open Bells in the interactive unscrambler →
More word resources
Explore our guides for more word game help:
Or see all our guides on the blog index.