gel

CEFRB2

/d͡ʒɛl/

noun · verb

Türkçe translations

Translating…

In plain English

  1. 01

    noun

    A thick, jelly-like substance.

  2. 02

    verb

    To become well organized or work well together.

Examples

  • I need a hair gel dispenser on my belt.

  • I don't use shower gel.

At a glance

Sits at B2 on the CEFR scale

Senses
5
Parts of speech
2
Citations
4
Synonyms
2

Also pronounced

  • [d͡ʒɛɫ]
  • /ɡɛl/

Deep Dive

noun

Extra meanings

  1. A film of flexible transparent plastic (such as acetate, celluloid, or cellophane) suitable for making superimpositions or diapositives (image to overlay on other images, especially for overhead projectors); a digital virtual equivalent of this.

  2. Any gel intended for a particular cosmetic use, such as for styling the hair.

  3. A semi-solid to almost solid colloid of a solid and a liquid, such as jelly, cheese or opal.

More examples

In context

  • Tom puts gel in his hair.

  • He was a nice guy, and I got on OK with his friends, but the two of us never really gelled.

  • We put our ideas together and they eventually gelled into a saleable product.

Synonyms

Quick test

Two questions on this entry. Nothing is scored.

Question 1 · Quick check

After adding the powder to water, a thick blank formed in the beaker.

Practise this properly in the app, where the word comes back before you forget it.

Nearby

Origin

noun

Coined by Thomas Graham in the mid 19th century as a clipping of gelatin, from French gélatine, from Italian gelatina, diminutive form of gelata (“iced”), from Latin gelata, past participle of gelo (“to freeze”), from gelu (“frost”), from Proto-Indo-European *gel- (“cold”). For the meaning development compare with Russian сту́день (stúdenʹ, “aspic, jelly, gel”) related to студёный (studjónyj, “cold”).