label

[ ley-buhl ]
See synonyms for: labellabeledlabelinglabelled on Thesaurus.com

noun
  1. a slip of paper, cloth, or other material, marked or inscribed, for attachment to something to indicate its manufacturer, nature, ownership, destination, etc.

  2. a short word or phrase descriptive of a person, group, intellectual movement, etc.

  1. a word or phrase indicating that what follows belongs in a particular category or classification: The following definition has the label “Architecture.”

  2. 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.

  3. a brand or trademark, especially of a manufacturer of phonograph records, tape cassettes, etc.: She records under a new label.

  4. the manufacturer using such a label: a major label that has produced some of the best recordings of the year.

  5. 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.

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

verb (used with object),la·beled, la·bel·ing or (especially British) la·belled, la·bel·ling.
  1. to affix a label to; mark with a label.

  2. to designate or describe by or on a label: The bottle was labeled poison.

  1. to put in a certain class; classify.

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

Origin of label

1
First recorded in 1275–1325; Middle English, from Middle French: “ribbon,” perhaps from Germanic; cf. lap1

Other words from label

  • la·bel·er, noun
  • non·la·bel·ing, adjective, noun
  • non·la·bel·ling, adjective, noun
  • pre·la·bel, noun, verb (used with object), pre·la·beled, pre·la·bel·ing or (especially British) pre·la·belled, pre·la·bel·ling.
  • re·la·bel, verb (used with object), re·la·beled, re·la·bel·ing or (especially British) re·la·belled, re·la·bel·ling.
  • un·la·beled, adjective
  • un·la·belled, adjective

Words Nearby label

Dictionary.com Unabridged Based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2024

How to use label in a sentence

British Dictionary definitions for label

label

/ (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

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

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

  3. another name for dripstone (def. 2)

  4. 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

  5. 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

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

verb-bels, -belling or -belled or US -bels, -beling or -beled (tr)
  1. to fasten a label to

  2. to mark with a label

  1. to describe or classify in a word or phrase: to label someone a liar

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

Origin of label

1
C14: from Old French, from Germanic; compare Old High German lappa rag

Derived forms of label

  • labeller, noun

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

Scientific definitions for label

label

[ bəl ]


The American Heritage® Science Dictionary Copyright © 2011. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. All rights reserved.