Noel
intj, name, noun ·Moderate ·College level
Definitions
- 1 Acronym of no observed effect level. abbreviation, acronym, alt-of
- 2 A kind of hymn, or canticle, of mediaeval origin, sung in honor of the birth of Christ; a Christmas carol.
"The first Nowell the Angel did say / Was to three poor Shepherds in the fields as they lay[…]"
- 3 period extending from Dec. 24 to Jan. 6 wordnet
- 1 A wish or expression of commemoration of Christmas. archaic
"And may all my enemies go to hell! / Noël! Noël! Noël! Noël!"
- 1 Christmas. dated, literary
- 2 A male given name from French.
"When Noel came, noisily bursting through the back door with buckets of cleansers and sponges, I introduced myself. "Just call me Noelle," he said of himself. "When I was little they used to call me Noel, Noel, the toilet bowl. Although now I have thought of painting that on the side of my van. It might be good for business? I don't know.""
- 3 A female given name from French.
- 4 A surname originating as a patronymic.
- 5 A city in McDonald County, Missouri, United States.
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- 6 A community in East Hants municipality, Hants County, Nova Scotia, Canada.
Example
More examples"Four of my favorite Christmas carols are "Silent Night," "Joy to the World," "The First Noel" and "Away in the Manger.""
Etymology
From Middle English Nowel, borrowed from Old French Noel (“Christmas”), from Latin nātālis [diēs Dominī] (“birth[day of the Lord]”). Doublet of natal and Natal.
* (names): From Noel in the sense of Christmas; given since Middle Ages to children born at Christmastide. * (city in Missouri): Named for brothers Clark Wallace and William Jasper Noel, stockmen and owners of a sawmill. * (community of Nova Scotia, Canada): Named after its most prominent resident, Noël Doiron.
From Middle English nowel, from Anglo-Norman noel, Middle French noel, a variant of nael, from Latin adjective nātālis (“natal, having to do with birth”).
Related phrases
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Data sourced from Wiktionary, WordNet, CMU, and other open linguistic databases. Updated March 2026.