dell

C2+ Topic:Nature & Landscape

US /dɛl/ UK /del/ See IPA manual

Minimal pairs

Sounds like dale /ɛ/ vs /eɪ/

Meanings

1

noun
a small, secluded, wooded valley

They picnicked in a shady dell by the stream.

Thesaurus

Synonyms

1 noun · a small, secluded, wooded... valley dale glen hollow valedingle

Opposites

hill ridge

Word family

Related forms dale

Etymology

From Middle English delle, from Old English dell ('a hollow, dell'), related to dale, from Proto-Germanic *daljō ('valley'). Native Germanic in origin.

dell Old English *daljō Proto-Germanic

View etymology graph ->

Topics

Nature & Landscape

External links

# dell

**Type:** Word
**Level:** C2+
**Part of speech:** noun
**IPA (US):** /dɛl/
**IPA (UK):** /del/

## Meanings
1. a small, secluded, wooded valley

## Examples
- They picnicked in a shady dell by the stream.

## Synonyms
- valley
- dale
- glen
- hollow
- vale
- dingle

## Antonyms
- hill
- ridge

## Related Forms
- dale

## Roots and Affixes
- Root: dell
- Root: *daljō

## Etymology
From Middle English delle, from Old English dell ('a hollow, dell'), related to dale, from Proto-Germanic *daljō ('valley'). Native Germanic in origin.

## AI Etymology
Dell is from Middle English delle, from Old English dell ('a hollow, dell'), related to dale, from Proto-Germanic *daljō ('valley'). Native Germanic in origin. The ancestry passes through Old English dell and Proto-Germanic *daljō. In present use as a noun, it means "a small, secluded, wooded valley", keeping the historical formation close to the word's ordinary semantic work. Related words include dale. Its contrast set includes hill and ridge, which clarifies the semantic boundary of the modern word. The surrounding word family keeps the same base visible in dale, showing how the headword belongs to a larger cluster rather than standing alone.

## Topics
- Nature & Landscape

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