label
Americannoun
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a slip of paper, cloth, or other material, marked or inscribed, for attachment to something to indicate its manufacturer, nature, ownership, destination, etc..
The medicine bottle should have a label on it with the dosing instructions.
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a short word or phrase descriptive of a person, group, intellectual movement, etc..
The label “progressive” can be used to describe many different political movements.
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a word or phrase indicating that what follows belongs in a particular category or classification.
The label “Formal” marks words used in academic or business contexts.
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Architecture. a molding or dripstone over a door or window, especially one that extends horizontally across the top of the opening and vertically downward for a certain distance at the sides.
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a brand or trademark under which something, such as clothing or music, is manufactured and sold.
She records under her own label.
Chanel has launched a new label for ready-to-wear couture.
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the manufacturer using such a label.
All the big-name labels will have a runway show during Fashion Week.
Major labels are feeling the economic crunch and are no longer signing small acts or individual musicians.
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Heraldry. a narrow horizontal strip with a number of downward extensions of rectangular or dovetail form, usually placed in chief as the cadency mark of an eldest son.
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Obsolete. a strip or narrow piece of anything.
verb (used with object)
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to affix a label to; mark with a label.
The drawers have all been labeled with their contents.
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to designate or describe by or on a label.
The bottle was labeled poison.
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to put in a certain class; classify.
It's easy to label someone as difficult and stop trying, but curiosity and compassion can often get you further.
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Chemistry. Also to incorporate a radioactive or heavy isotope into (a molecule) in order to make traceable.
noun
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a piece of paper, card, or other material attached to an object to identify it or give instructions or details concerning its ownership, use, nature, destination, etc; tag
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a brief descriptive phrase or term given to a person, group, school of thought, etc
the label "Romantic" is applied to many different kinds of poetry
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a word or phrase heading a piece of text to indicate or summarize its contents
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a trademark or company or brand name on certain goods, esp, formerly, on gramophone records
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another name for dripstone
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heraldry a charge consisting of a horizontal line across the chief of a shield with three or more pendants: the charge of an eldest son
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computing a group of characters, such as a number or a word, appended to a particular statement in a program to allow its unique identification
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chem a radioactive element used in a compound to trace the mechanism of a chemical reaction
verb
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to fasten a label to
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to mark with a label
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to describe or classify in a word or phrase
to label someone a liar
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to make (one or more atoms in a compound) radioactive, for use in determining the mechanism of a reaction
Other Word Forms
Derived Forms
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labelernoun
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labellernoun
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prelabelnoun
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relabelverb (used with object)
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nonlabelingadjective
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nonlabellingadjective
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unlabeledadjective
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unlabelledadjective
Inflected Forms
Nouns
Participles
Conjugated Forms
Present
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labelsimple
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labelssimple
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have labeledperfect
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have labelledperfect
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has labeledperfect
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has labelledperfect
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am labelingprogressive
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am labellingprogressive
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are labelingprogressive
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are labellingprogressive
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is labelingprogressive
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is labellingprogressive
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have been labelingperfect progressive
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have been labellingperfect progressive
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has been labelingperfect progressive
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has been labellingperfect progressive
Past
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labeledsimple
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labelledsimple
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had labeledperfect
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had labelledperfect
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was labelingprogressive
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was labellingprogressive
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were labelingprogressive
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were labellingprogressive
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had been labelingperfect progressive
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had been labellingperfect progressive
Future
Etymology
Origin of label
First recorded in 1275–1325; Middle English, from Middle French: “ribbon,” perhaps from Germanic; cf. lap 1
Explanation
The saying “labels are for jars not people” means it’s OK to put a description on a jar so you know what’s inside (a label), but it’s not okay to judge people by attaching a label, or description to them, such as "nerd," "jock," or "burnout." Label is a busy word. It refers to the paper or identifying marks on a jar that tells you something about what’s inside the jar. Put such an identifier on the jar, and you label it. Related to that is a judgment about someone or something, a label. When you call yourself a superstar, you label yourself. Finally, you can use label as a short form of recording label, a company that produces musical recordings.
Vocabulary lists containing label
Jim Burke's Academic Vocabulary List
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Talk Like Shakespeare Day, List 1
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Common Five-letter Words for Wordle, List 5
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Example Sentences
Examples are provided to illustrate real-world usage of words in context. Any opinions expressed do not reflect the views of Dictionary.com.
See Examples For:
As is customary for Jail Time Records' music, half the profit from the album's sale went to the artists and the rest was reinvested into the label.
From BBC ● Jul. 26, 2026
Authorities label the video fake and deny any deal or cooperation with the cartels.
From Los Angeles Times ● Jul. 26, 2026
In 1975, he moved to San Francisco to record as a solo artist for the independent Beserkley label.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Jul. 22, 2026
It’s not enough for a film to explain its meaning; it must also say something about that message and its broader significance to stare down the “classic” label.
From Salon ● Jul. 22, 2026
The label on the frame read: La Joconde.
From "The Mona Lisa Vanishes" by Nicholas Day
Residents doing the same acquire different labels: obstruction, disorder, interference, and even conspiracy.
From Slate ● Jul. 27, 2026
The funniest part of that conversation is when Sam labels Judith a WOACA, a Woman of a Certain Age, pronouncing it as if he were Fozzie Bear punctuating a joke in an old-timey stand-up set.
From Salon ● Jul. 26, 2026
But with the buzz growing around the new music, record labels came calling.
From Los Angeles Times ● Jul. 22, 2026
Since announcing his run for the Makerfield seat in May, he's repeatedly urged Britons to forget about party labels or factional identities and instead unite around pride in their local area.
From BBC ● Jul. 20, 2026
A few schoolbooks have just arrived, and I brought a large supply of notebooks, pencils, erasers and labels from home.
From "The Diary of a Young Girl" by Anne Frank
She realized the need for a video version after one job application fizzled: Thompson declined a potential employer’s request for an AI-powered interview, which was labeled a “vibe check.”
From MarketWatch ● Jul. 15, 2026
It was a shift to what the party labeled, oxymoronically, a “socialist-oriented market economy.”
From The Wall Street Journal ● Jul. 7, 2026
An equipment box labeled “Garden Party”! Mysterious shapes covered in black-plastic tarps!
From Salon ● Jul. 2, 2026
CBS also posted images on social media of crews unloading covered equipment labeled “Garden Party,” and other photos show a “40-inch mirror ball.”
From Los Angeles Times ● Jul. 1, 2026
The vet gently rolled the labeled glass vial between the palms of his hands.
From "Sir Fig Newton and the Science of Persistence" by Sonja Thomas
It was not quite labelled all-out attack, but it was certainly going to be the style of football fans want to see.
From BBC ● Jul. 21, 2026
The same document includes a table, external with a row labelled "unspecified U.S. voter data", which shows 204,822,241 records and is dated 2016.
From BBC ● Jul. 17, 2026
When Lorraine asked for the DPS to investigate the actions of officers, she discovered she had been labelled internally as a "fixated complainant".
From BBC ● Jul. 2, 2026
On one production line, investigators found the same large trays of doner meat being emptied into two different packets to go to shops - one labelled as "70% lamb" and one labelled as "50% lamb".
From BBC ● Jul. 2, 2026
At the centre top there is a representation of Papin’s piston powered by the pressure of the atmosphere: once the steam has condensed, removal of the pin labelled E causes the piston to descend.
From "The Invention of Science" by David Wootton
He considers the Nutri-Score labeling system he created and apps like Yuka and Open Food Facts to be allies.
From BBC ● Jul. 13, 2026
The Digital Media Association, the music-streaming-platform trade association that represents companies including Spotify and Apple, said it is tracking the labeling announcement and looks forward to getting more detailed and accurate AI metadata on tracks.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Jul. 10, 2026
Several major music industry organizations on Friday unveiled a labeling system for content created with generative artificial intelligence that they would like to see widely adopted.
From Barron's ● Jul. 10, 2026
Clark’s family is currently requesting funds to return her remains to California, labeling the death as “a completely bizarre accident.”
From Los Angeles Times ● Jul. 6, 2026
By labeling us at an early age, they were almost able to affect our school record for life.
From "The Freedom Writers Diary" by The Freedom Writers
The announcement comes after North Korea has repeatedly spurned South Korean President Lee Jae Myung's dovish overtures, labelling Seoul its "most hostile" enemy and declaring itself an "irreversible" nuclear state.
From Barron's ● Jul. 10, 2026
Mountbatten-Windsor's mention of Pizza Express in the interview made headlines worldwide in 2019, with some newspapers labelling it an "alibi".
From BBC ● Jul. 6, 2026
In briefings to local media, government sources have been more critical, labelling the rumours "wild speculation" -- in German, "wueste Spekulation", a word play seen as a veiled dig at Merz's potential challenger, Wuest.
From Barron's ● May 29, 2026
What may really be stopping Spotify from embracing labelling and filtering is economics, speculate many.
From BBC ● Apr. 27, 2026
Such labelling and treatment made them an angry and embittered lot.
From "Kaffir Boy: An Autobiography" by Mark Mathabane
Definitions and idiom definitions from Dictionary.com Unabridged, based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2023
Idioms from The American Heritage® Idioms Dictionary copyright © 2002, 2001, 1995 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company.
