bagel

American  

[bey-guhl] / ˈbeɪ gəl /

noun

1. a leavened, doughnut-shaped, firm-textured roll, with a brownish glazed surface, made of dough first poached and then baked.

---

bagel British  

/ ˈbeɪɡəl /

noun

1. a hard ring-shaped bread roll, characteristic of Jewish baking

---

Etymology

Origin of bagel

1930–35; < Yiddish beygl; compare dialectal German Beugel < Germanic *baug- ring ( bee ² ) + *-il- noun suffix

Compare meaning

How does bagel compare to similar and commonly confused words? Explore the most common comparisons:

• bialy vs. bagel

Explanation

A bagel is a kind of baked good made by boiling and then baking a circle of dough until the inside is chewy and the outside is slightly crisp. New York is famous for having many great bagel shops. A bagel is a traditional Jewish roll that's shaped like a doughnut and often served sliced in half, toasted, and spread with butter or cream cheese. New Yorkers claim that their city has the best bagels in the world, although Montreal is also known for its delicious bagels. The word is from the Yiddish beygl, with an Old High German root, boug, or "ring," which describes a bagel's shape.

Example Sentences

A friend pointed him to an open restaurant, where he devoured a salmon bagel.

From Los Angeles Times • Feb. 23, 2026

Just be sure the fee isn’t beyond your means, that you pay your card balance off on time every month, and that you indulge in an extra bagel when you’re at the JFK location.

From MarketWatch • Feb. 20, 2026

Canada won’t need any motivation after that opening round bagel.

From The Wall Street Journal • Feb. 13, 2026

“It’s like when you go to Noah’s bagel in the afternoon,” Madannavar says, in reference to a popular California-based bagel chain.

From Barron's • Dec. 19, 2025

Instead, she took another bite of salted bagel to dull the hunger.

From "Night Owls" by A.R. Vishny