label

American  

[lay-buhl] / ˈleɪ bəl /

noun

• labels
  plural

1. 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.

2. 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.

3. 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.

4. 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.

5. 1. 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.

   2. 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.

6. 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.

7. Obsolete. a strip or narrow piece of anything.

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verb (used with object)

• labels,
  present (3rd person singular)
• labeled,
  past participle,  past
• labelled,
  past participle,  past (especially British)
• labeling,
  present participle
• labelling
  present participle (especially British)

1. to affix a label to; mark with a label.

   The drawers have all been labeled with their contents.

2. to designate or describe by or on a label.

   The bottle was labeled poison.

3. 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.

4. Chemistry. Also to incorporate a radioactive or heavy isotope into (a molecule) in order to make traceable.

label British  

/ ˈleɪbəl /

noun

1. 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

2. 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

3. a word or phrase heading a piece of text to indicate or summarize its contents

4. a trademark or company or brand name on certain goods, esp, formerly, on gramophone records

5. another name for dripstone

6. 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

7. 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

8. chem a radioactive element used in a compound to trace the mechanism of a chemical reaction

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verb

1. to fasten a label to

2. to mark with a label

3. to describe or classify in a word or phrase

   to label someone a liar

4. to make (one or more atoms in a compound) radioactive, for use in determining the mechanism of a reaction

label Scientific  

/ lā′bəl /

1. See tracer

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Other Word Forms

Derived Forms

• labeler
  noun
• labeller
  noun
• prelabel
  noun
• relabel
  verb (used with object)
• nonlabeling
  adjective
• nonlabelling
  adjective
• unlabeled
  adjective
• unlabelled
  adjective

Inflected Forms

Nouns

• labels
  plural

Participles

• labeling
  present
• labelling
  present
• labeled
  past
• labelled
  past

Conjugated Forms

Present

• label
  simple
• labels
  simple
• have labeled
  perfect
• have labelled
  perfect
• has labeled
  perfect
• has labelled
  perfect
• am labeling
  progressive
• am labelling
  progressive
• are labeling
  progressive
• are labelling
  progressive
• is labeling
  progressive
• is labelling
  progressive
• have been labeling
  perfect progressive
• have been labelling
  perfect progressive
• has been labeling
  perfect progressive
• has been labelling
  perfect progressive

Past

• labeled
  simple
• labelled
  simple
• had labeled
  perfect
• had labelled
  perfect
• was labeling
  progressive
• was labelling
  progressive
• were labeling
  progressive
• were labelling
  progressive
• had been labeling
  perfect progressive
• had been labelling
  perfect progressive

Future

• will label
  simple
• will have labeled
  perfect
• will have labelled
  perfect
• will be labeling
  progressive
• will be labelling
  progressive
• will have been labeling
  perfect progressive
• will have been labelling
  perfect progressive

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Etymology

Origin of label

First recorded in 1275–1325; Middle English, from Middle French: “ribbon,” perhaps from Germanic; cf. lap ¹

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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.

Example Sentences

See Examples For:

label labels labeled labelled labeling labelling

Nolan Busalacchi, founder of an independent record label and media company focused on Milwaukee-based artists, had helped Foenem make the zoo video for “Milwaukee County Zoo” that features him dancing on the grounds.

From The Wall Street Journal ● Oct. 23, 2026

In 1973, he set up the label Mulligan Records and went on to produce 17 albums, with the label publishing music from a range of artists including Boomtown Rats, The Radiators and Agnes Bernell.

From BBC ● Oct. 23, 2026

“Apple Records once upon a time,” he says, referring to the Beatles’ label.

From Los Angeles Times ● Oct. 21, 2026

Cool promptly in shallow containers, label and refrigerate.

From Salon ● Oct. 20, 2026

Box Boy walks over to a short counter near the entrance, props the package beside him, and starts filling out a mailing label.

From "What If It's Us" by Becky Albertalli and Adam Silvera

Changing that meant overhauling marketing campaigns and purchasing specific luxury labels that elite customers wanted, he said.

From The Wall Street Journal ● Oct. 29, 2026

Retailers say they use digital labels to save time on paper tag changes.

From The Wall Street Journal ● Oct. 26, 2026

The unusual discovery highlights a fundamental problem with applying familiar astronomical labels to objects found in distant star systems.

From Science Daily ● Oct. 25, 2026

She said she wanted parents to feel part of the process so they were also given wrapping paper and labels.

From BBC ● Oct. 24, 2026

They don’t have any labels on them, other than the customer’s name.

From "A Place at the Table" by Saadia Faruqi and Laura Shovan

Instead, experiments that tracked specially labeled glucose showed that muscle cells redirected the sugar toward manufacturing their own antioxidants.

From Science Daily ● Oct. 28, 2026

The Boo Bar is labeled “John Carpenter’s,” just like one of his films.

From Los Angeles Times ● Oct. 27, 2026

He isn’t a Joel Embiid-like figure whose struggles on the court and history of missed games make him easily labeled as “lazy.”

From Salon ● Oct. 21, 2026

By commodity trade, Hayes is mainly referring to the memory stocks that have been labeled the picks-and-shovels play of the AI infrastructure boom.

From MarketWatch ● Oct. 15, 2026

Ehrlichman handed him a file labeled “Pentagon Papers.”

From "Most Dangerous: Daniel Ellsberg and the Secret History of the Vietnam War" by Steve Sheinkin

It's then labelled so the AI knows what it is looking at and packaged in a format that can be used by clients.

From BBC ● Oct. 23, 2026

The French group runs a scheme under which authors can get their books assessed and then labelled as a "human creation" for a small fee, with about 200 works so far given the stamp.

From Barron's ● Oct. 9, 2026

Publishers sign up to the scheme for a fee, and can then request to get their authors' books labelled with the Books By People mark.

From Barron's ● Oct. 9, 2026

In the power station's control room, the link to the Palace had been discreetly labelled as "Carnaby Street", in case any intruders had ever been tempted to switch off the Palace lights.

From BBC ● Oct. 7, 2026

“Hush!” said Jane, as Mary Poppins took out a large bottle labelled “One Tea-Spoon to be Taken at Bed-Time.”

From "Mary Poppins" by P. L. Travers

Today, consumers and companies face a patchwork of state programs and conflicting labeling requirements.

From The Wall Street Journal ● Oct. 14, 2026

The first-of-its-kind research, published in the journal Nutrition Research, could also help consumers better understand the distinction between different types of trans fats and provide greater clarity around labeling policies that may contribute to confusion.

From Science Daily ● Oct. 8, 2026

Hundreds of posts labeling me misogynistic and bigoted appeared on Cornell’s anonymous chat forums.

From The Wall Street Journal ● Sep. 29, 2026

It’s also usually the manufacturer’s responsibility to ensure everything on those products’ labeling is accurate.

From MarketWatch ● Sep. 16, 2026

“You can copy mine, if you like,” said Ron, labeling his last star with a flourish and shoving the chart toward Harry.

From "Harry Potter And The Prisoner Of Azkaban" by J.K. Rowling

Seoul's National Security Office, meanwhile, said the launches violated UN Security Council resolutions, labelling them "serious acts that do nothing to help manage the current situation".

From Barron's ● Oct. 29, 2026

"There is a lot of anger," said activist Sidorela Vatnikaj, labelling the movement a "revolution".

From Barron's ● Oct. 24, 2026

Several labelling schemes, including from Britain, France and Germany, were being showcased at the world's biggest book industry fair in Frankfurt this week, where the challenges posed by AI were hotly debated.

From Barron's ● Oct. 9, 2026

"We've been labelling clothes, putting Braille in baby books and organising the baby bag so that I know where everything is," he says.

From BBC ● Sep. 12, 2026

In a nutshell, the problem with labelling anything ‘Romantic’ is that it has subsequently come to mean virtually anything, from the poetry of Lord Byron to the songs of Taylor Swift.

From "The Story of Music" by Howard Goodall

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Related Words

• company
• design
• logo
• number
• stamp
• sticker
• tag
• trademark

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