bel1
[bel]
- a unit of power ratio, equal to 10 decibels.
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Origin of bel1
First recorded in 1925–30; named after A. G. Bell
bel2
[bel]
- bael.
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Bel.
Dictionary.com Unabridged
Based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2018
Examples from the Web for bel
Contemporary Examples
I was sitting in this big empty house in Bel Air, with a phone with five extensions which we no longer needed.
Brooks: We holed up in the Bel Air Hotel, where Gene was staying, and we acted all the parts out.
CHERISHED MEMORIES FROM SHOOTING Tim Matheson: We shot near Ronald Reagan's Bel Air home, the Western White House.
‘She’s All That' 15th Anniversary: Cast and Crew Reminisce About the Making of the ‘90s ClassicMarlow Stern
January 29, 2014
I was sitting in his Bel Air home interviewing him and he had some friends over.
People like to say his office is the back booth at the Bel Air Hotel.
Historical Examples
He did not trouble to put on a pretence of indifference with Bel, just as he did not wish to talk about it.
Mary GrayKatharine Tynan
He appears in this relationship to Bel in the religious texts of Babylonia.
The Religion of Babylonia and AssyriaMorris Jastrow
Sin's secondary position is indicated by making him a son of Bel.
The Religion of Babylonia and AssyriaMorris Jastrow
This is the greeting from Bel Tarbasi and the assembled gods.
The Religion of Babylonia and AssyriaMorris Jastrow
For the 1st day of Elul the second, sacred to Anu and Bel, a favorable day.
The Religion of Babylonia and AssyriaMorris Jastrow
bel
- a unit for comparing two power levels, equal to the logarithm to the base ten of the ratio of the two powersSymbols: B, b See also decibel
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Word Origin
C20: named after Alexander Graham Bell
Bel
- (in Babylonian and Assyrian mythology) the god of the earth
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Collins English Dictionary - Complete & Unabridged 2012 Digital Edition
© William Collins Sons & Co. Ltd. 1979, 1986 © HarperCollins
Publishers 1998, 2000, 2003, 2005, 2006, 2007, 2009, 2012
Word Origin and History for bel
Bel
heaven-and-earth god of Babylonian religion, from Akkadian Belu, literally "lord, owner, master," cognate with Hebrew ba'al.
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adj.
"beautiful," early 14c., from Old French bel, belle "beautiful, fair, fine" (see belle). "Naturalized in ME.; but after 1600 consciously French" [OED].
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n.
unit of power level in measuring sound, 1929, named for Scottish-born telephone pioneer Alexander Graham Bell (1847-1922).
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Online Etymology Dictionary, © 2010 Douglas Harper
bel
(bĕl)- A unit expressing the relative intensity of a sound, equal to ten decibels.
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The American Heritage® Stedman's Medical Dictionary
Copyright © 2002, 2001, 1995 by Houghton Mifflin Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Company.
bel
[bĕl]
- A unit of measurement equal to ten decibels.
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The American Heritage® Science Dictionary
Copyright © 2011. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. All rights reserved.