seal

CEFRB1

/siːl/

noun · verb

Türkçe translations

Translating…

In plain English

  1. 01

    noun

    A sea animal with flippers and smooth fur.

  2. 02

    verb

    To close something tightly so air or liquid cannot enter.

Examples

  • Once you break the seal, you can't return the tape.

  • The seal kept its balance well on the large ball.

At a glance

Sits at B1 on the CEFR scale

Senses
5
Parts of speech
2
Citations
5
Synonyms
5

Deep Dive

noun

Extra meanings

  1. A stamp used to impress a design on a soft substance such as wax.

  2. To hunt seals.

  3. A pinniped (Pinnipedia), particularly an earless seal (true seal) or eared seal.

More examples

In context

  • The letter bore the president's seal.

  • The front of the podium bore the presidential seal.

  • The seals in the harbor looked better than they smelled.

Synonyms

Quick test

Two questions on this entry. Nothing is scored.

Question 1 · Quick check

The cute blank swam gracefully through the icy Arctic waters.

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

Nearby

Origin

noun

From Middle English sel, from an inflectional form of Old English seolh, from Proto-West Germanic *selh, from Proto-Germanic *selhaz (compare Scots selch,selkie, North Frisian selich, Middle Dutch seel, zēle, Old High German selah, Danish sæl, Middle Low German sale, Icelandic selur), either from Proto-Indo-European *selk- (“to pull”) (compare dialectal English sullow (“plough”)) or from early Proto-Finnic *šülkeš (later *hülgeh, compare dialectal Finnish hylki, standard hylje, Estonian hüljes).