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• ale
  ale

  noun

  a malt beverage, darker, heavier, and more bitter than beer, containing about 6 percent alcohol by volume.
• A.L.E.
  A.L.E.

  abbreviation

  additional living expense.

ale

¹ American  

[eyl] / eɪl /

noun

• ales
  plural

1. a malt beverage, darker, heavier, and more bitter than beer, containing about 6 percent alcohol by volume.

2. British. beer.

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A.L.E. ² American  

abbreviation

Insurance.

1. additional living expense.

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ale British  

/ eɪl /

noun

1. a beer fermented in an open vessel using yeasts that rise to the top of the brew Compare beer lager 1

2. (formerly) an alcoholic drink made by fermenting a cereal, esp barley, but differing from beer by being unflavoured by hops

3. another word for beer

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Other Word Forms

Noun Inflected Forms

• ales
  plural

Etymology

Origin of ale

First recorded before 950; Middle English; Old English (e)alu (genitive ealoth ); cognate with Old Saxon alo-, Middle Dutch ale, ael, Old Norse ǫl; Lithuanian alùs, Old Church Slavonic olŭ; Finnish, Estonian olut

Explanation

Ale is a particular type of beer. Ale would be a good thing to order if you ever visit a pub in Britain. Ale is yeast-fermented beer, brewed with sweet-tasting malted barley, and often with hops, to balance the sweetness with a more bitter flavor. In Britain, ale is considered to be any beer "other than lager, stout, or porter," while in the US ale is distinguished by the style of fermentation. The Old English origin of ale is ealu, "ale or beer." The Proto-Indo-European root has an implied meaning of "sorcery, magic, and intoxication."

Example Sentences

See Examples For:

ale ales

If you give a man a dragon, he’ll ask for a glass of ale to go with it.

From Los Angeles Times ● Aug. 10, 2026

So ginger ale and tonic water became sick-day staples in our home, a bottle uncapped with a satisfying carbonated hiss if someone had a fever.

From The Wall Street Journal ● Aug. 6, 2026

And in 2024, craft ale company Brew York also recalled cans of its Juice Forsyth IPA over concerns they could explode and injure people.

From BBC ● Jun. 6, 2026

The ginger ale is flatly branded Canada Dry.

From Salon ● Feb. 15, 2026

“I’m a busy man,” he says sipping his ale.

From "The Bletchley Riddle" by Ruta Sepetys and Steve Sheinkin

This was one of the first ales he made in his Overtone brewery in Glasgow.

From BBC ● Jan. 28, 2026

Although these lagers can achieve foam stability similar to Belgian ales, the physics behind them vary significantly.

From Science Daily ● Nov. 29, 2025

“We’re having trouble finding Saymo, so we just keep ordering Shastas and ginger ales and hoping that he’ll roll up,” Mulaney said at the January presentation.

From Los Angeles Times ● Mar. 10, 2025

He remembers two politicians who would eat together and regularly put in the same order: "Two working man's portions of your beef and two pewter mugs of your finest ales."

From BBC ● Sep. 7, 2024

I believe it means the Pickled Onion owes me a few ginger ales and perhaps a chicken dinner for my suffering.

From "The Detective's Assistant" by Kate Hannigan

Related Words

• brew
• malt
• suds