Ale
name, noun ·1 syllable ·Moderate ·College level
Definitions
- 1 A beer made without hops. countable, dated, uncountable
- 2 a general name for beer made with a top fermenting yeast; in some of the United States an ale is (by law) a brew of more than 4% alcohol by volume wordnet
- 3 A beer produced by so-called warm fermentation and not pressurized. countable, uncountable
- 4 A festival in English country places, so called from the liquor drunk. countable, uncountable
- 1 A surname.
- 2 Diminutive of Alejandra, from analogy with English Alison or Alexandra diminutive, form-of
Example
More examples"He began his meal by drinking half a glass of ale."
Etymology
From Middle English ale, from Old English ealu, ealo, from Proto-West Germanic *alu, from Proto-Germanic *alu (compare Dutch aal, Swedish öl), from Proto-Indo-European *h₂elut- (“beer”), or *h₂elu- (“bitter”). Compare Russian ол (ol), Lithuanian alùs, Armenian օղի (ōġi); compare also Latin alum (“comfrey”), alūta (“tawed leather”), Ancient Greek ἀλύδοιμος (alúdoimos, “bitter”).
* As a Spanish surname, from Ale, probably a shortening of Alejandro. * As an Italian surname, likely a variant of Aleo. * As an English surname, from Middle English Ale, shortened from several names such as Alice, Allison, etc. * Also as an English surname, variant of Hale. * As a Dutch surname, from the personal name Aal, also shortened from names such as Alewijn, Albert. * As a Nepali surname, from आले (āle). This surname is mostly found in Nepal. Compare Al.
Related phrases
More for "ale"
Data sourced from Wiktionary, WordNet, CMU, and other open linguistic databases. Updated March 2026.