al
noun
Jump To:
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al
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AL
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al-
al-variant of ad- before l: allure.
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-al
-ala suffix with the general sense “of the kind of, pertaining to, having the form or character of” that named by the stem, occurring in loanwords from Latin (autumnal; natural; pastoral ), and productive in English on the Latin model, usually with bases of Latin origin (accidental; seasonal; tribal ). Originally, -al1 was restricted to stems not containing an -l- (cf. -ar); recent lapses in this rule have produced semantically distinct pairs, as familiar and familial.
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Al-
Al-a word in Arabic names meaning “family” or “the house of ”.
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al.
al.abbreviationother things.
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AL.
AL.abbreviationAnglo-Latin.
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a.l.
a.l.abbreviationautograph letter.
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A.L.
A.L.abbreviationAmerican League.
al
1 American
[ahl]
/ ɑl /
noun
Al
2
American
[al]
/ æl /
noun
Al
3
American
Symbol, Chemistry.
AL
4
American
al-
5
American
-al
6
American
-al
7
American
-al
8
American
Al-
9
American
al.
10
American
abbreviation
al.
11
American
abbreviation
AL.
12
American
abbreviation
a.l.
13
American
abbreviation
A.L.
14
American
abbreviation
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Baseball. American League.
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American Legion.
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Anglo-Latin.
AL
1
British
abbreviation
-
Alabama
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Anglo-Latin
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(in the US and Canada) American League (of baseball teams)
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Albania (international car registration)
-al
2
British
suffix
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indicating an aldehyde
ethanal
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indicating a pharmaceutical product
phenobarbital
-al
3
British
suffix
-al
4
British
suffix
Al
5
British
symbol
al
6
British
abbreviation
Etymology
Origin of al1
From the Hindi word āl
Origin of -al6
< Latin ālis, -āle; often replacing Middle English -el < Old French
Origin of -al7
< Latin -āle (singular), -ālia (plural), nominalized neuter of -ālis -al 1; often replacing Middle English -aille < Old French < Latin -ālia
Origin of -al8
Presumed to be short for aldehyde
Origin of Al-9
From the Arabic word āl family
Origin of al.10
From the Latin word alia
Origin of al.11
From the Latin word aliī
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:
While Pele, Messi et al are rightly regarded as the best male players ever, Fontaine is now a piece of trivia.
From BBC ● Jul. 13, 2026
Serving up heaps of fatty cabeza and sizzling al pastor, it grew to nearly a dozen locations spanning from Long Beach to L.A. to the Antelope Valley, drawing praise from prominent food critics.
From Los Angeles Times ● Jul. 8, 2026
Durable, ready-for-anywhere gear like stainless steel tumblers and a backpack in lieu of a basket are versatile enough for dining al fresco almost anywhere.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Jul. 4, 2026
The findings were published in Physical Review Letters in a paper titled "Resonant magnetophonon emission by supersonic electrons in ultrahigh-mobility two-dimensional systems," by Michael Hilke et al.
From Science Daily ● Jul. 2, 2026
‘Only my uncle, Caliph Haroun al Rashid,’ the Sultan said.
From "The BFG" by Roald Dahl
He also featured as Al Simpson on Home and Away.
From BBC ● Jul. 19, 2026
Sheikh Tahnoon bin Zayed Al Nahyan, the national security adviser of the United Arab Emirates, was planning to build one of the world’s biggest artificial-intelligence hubs—and he had the financial firepower to do it.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Jul. 19, 2026
According to TMZ, the alleged intruder was searching for Al Roker but instead turned his focus to Melvin when he couldn’t find the longtime weatherman.
From Los Angeles Times ● Jul. 16, 2026
The discovery was made in the Al Bahnasa necropolis, the archaeological site identified with ancient Oxyrhynchus, one of the most important cities of Greco-Roman Egypt.
From Science Daily ● Jul. 15, 2026
Uncle Al is also missing, but no one is surprised.
From "Water for Elephants" by Sara Gruen
In a crowded AL postseason field, Boston’s players were going to be among the most desirable assets on the market.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Jul. 21, 2026
Fans voted him into the starting lineup, with the most final-round votes of any AL outfielder.
From Los Angeles Times ● Jul. 10, 2026
Adell was hitless in four at-bats, striking out twice, in the 8-2 loss that dropped the Angels to 23-39, the worst record in the AL.
From Los Angeles Times ● Jun. 3, 2026
Ethiopian Airlines Group ordered six 787-9 jets while EL AL Israel Airlines ordered one 787-10 and five 787-9 aircraft.
From Barron's ● May 12, 2026
Putting a couple of charpoys outside, we managed a few hours' sleep AL FRESCO, in spite of the flies and mosquitoes innumerable, who lost no time in taking possession of their new property.
From Diary of a Pedestrian in Cashmere and Thibet by Knight, William Henry
It was the first such attack in Damascus since Islamist-led rebel forces overthrew Bashar al- Assad in December, ending 13 years of devastating civil war.
From BBC ● Jun. 30, 2025
American citizen Dina al- Khatib said she and her family were desperate to get out.
From Seattle Times ● Oct. 21, 2023
This illustration from al-Biruni’s fourteenth-century history called al-Athar al- Baqiyah depicts the prophet Abraham destroying idols that were being worshipped instead of the one God.
From Textbooks ● Apr. 19, 2023
Syrian President Bashar al- Assad said that he would be “open” to a dialogue with the United States but that it must be “based on mutual respect.”
From Washington Post ● Mar. 27, 2015
I wanted to tell her about my dream where a man chased me down a rocky path littered with bruised al- lamanda leaves.
From "Purple Hibiscus" by Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie
The names for aldehyde and ketone compounds are derived using similar nomenclature rules as for alkanes and alcohols, and include the class-identifying suffixes -al and -one, respectively:
From Textbooks ● Feb. 14, 2019
Unapostolic, -al, un-ap-os-tol′ik, -al, adj. not in accordance with apostolic usage or authority.
From Chambers's Twentieth Century Dictionary (part 4 of 4: S-Z and supplements) by Various
Sycophant′ic, -al, Sycophant′ish, like a sycophant: obsequiously flattering: parasitic.—v.i.
From Chambers's Twentieth Century Dictionary (part 4 of 4: S-Z and supplements) by Various
Seraph′ic, -al, pertaining to, or becoming, a seraph: angelic: pure: sublime: refined.—adv.
From Chambers's Twentieth Century Dictionary (part 4 of 4: S-Z and supplements) by Various
Stō′ic, -al, pertaining to the Stoics, or to their opinions; indifferent to pleasure or pain.—adv.
From Chambers's Twentieth Century Dictionary (part 4 of 4: S-Z and supplements) by Various
Power often rested in the hands of local governors, who exploited regional tensions or weaknesses to establish their own dynasties and even their own rival caliphates, as in Al- Andalus.
From Textbooks ● Apr. 19, 2023
MBC Group, the Middle East's largest media company, and Al- Sharq News, a newly created television news channel, have also internally discussed plans to move to Riyadh, the sources said.
From Reuters ● Sep. 3, 2021
“Our main concern should be for this drought in Ethiopia not to degenerate into a famine,” said the humanitarian envoy, Ahmed Al- Meraikhi.
From Seattle Times ● Jun. 10, 2017
Al- Jazeera didn’t say how it obtained the correspondence, which covered the period from 1999 to 2010.
From BusinessWeek ● Jan. 24, 2011
I put my clothes on and came into the waiting area where Esther, Leslie, and Al- haji sat.
From "A Long Way Gone: Memoirs of a Boy Soldier" by Ishmael Beah
Mr. Coffin et al. stage a colorful but uninteresting clatter of random mayhem, only occasionally interrupted by an ironic wink: “We are no longer evil,” announces Goomi.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Jul. 1, 2026
To get around this awkwardness, Winthrop et al. propagated the notion—formalized in the colony’s 1629 seal—that the Native Americans needed the new settlers for their own good.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Nov. 7, 2025
"The findings from Chen et al. describe an unexpected role for naked mole-rat cGAS in the nucleus that influences longevity," write John Martinez and colleagues in a related Perspective.
From Science Daily ● Oct. 20, 2025
Levy would finish out his career working with Spielberg et al., retiring in 2024.
From Los Angeles Times ● Apr. 9, 2025
In a 2012 study, Patil et al. examined the neural underpinnings of musical timbre in order to understand the underlying processes of timbre recognition.
From "Music and the Child" by Natalie Sarrazin
AL. šitim, šidim = idinnu is usually written with the sign GIM, Poebel, PBS.
From Sumerian Liturgies and Psalms by Langdon, Stephen
Projected videos of rushing rivers and roiling seas mix effortlessly with disparate photographs of human gender fluidity, which marks the people in A.L.
From Los Angeles Times ● Oct. 15, 2024
McClinton, 59, and Devon Guion, 38, both lived at A.L.
From Seattle Times ● Sep. 30, 2023
He went into play leading A.L. rookies in homers, RBIs, runs and was tied for first place in hits.
From Washington Times ● Jun. 29, 2023
Still, I studied Julian of Norwich and Margery Kempe in graduate school back in the 1970s; remember when A.L.
From Washington Post ● Jan. 5, 2023
Of such order is the Countess Claverley, made whimsically real and lovable in the recent book by Ellen Thorneycroft Fowler and A.L.
From The False Gods by Lorimer, George Horace
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.
