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ENGLISH · A WORD WITH POSSIBILITIES

belly.

The abdomen (especially a fat one).

5 characters2 syllables approx.English language

Meaning & usage

noun/ˈbɛli/
  1. The abdomen (especially a fat one).

    You've grown a belly over Christmas! Time to join the gym again.
  2. stomach (an organ in animals that stores food in the process of digestion)

    My belly was full of wine.
  3. uterus (a reproductive organ of therian mammals in which the young are conceived and develop until birth)

    countable
  4. The lower fuselage of an airplane.

  5. The part of anything which resembles (either closely or abstractly) the human belly in protuberance or in concavity; often, the fundus (innermost part).

    the belly of a flask, muscle, violin, sail, or ship
  6. The part of anything which resembles (either closely or abstractly) the human belly in protuberance or in concavity; often, the fundus (innermost part). The main curved portion of a knife blade.

  7. The part of anything which resembles (either closely or abstractly) the human belly in protuberance or in concavity; often, the fundus (innermost part). The hollow part of a curved or bent timber, the convex part of which is the back.

Where this word comes from

Etymology tree Proto-Indo-European *bʰelǵʰ- Proto-Indo-European *-is Proto-Indo-European *bʰólǵʰis Proto-Germanic *balgiz Proto-West Germanic *balgi Old English bielġ Middle English bely English belly Inherited from Middle English bely, beli, bali, below, belew, balyw, from Old English bielġ (“bag, pouch, bulge”), from Proto-West Germanic *balgi, *balgu, from Proto-Germanic *balgiz, *balguz (“skin, hide, bellows, bag”), from Proto-Indo-European *bʰelǵʰ- (“to swell, blow up”). Cognate with Dutch balg, German Balg, Danish bælg, Old Irish bolg, Welsh bol. Doublet of bellows, blague, bulge, and budge. See also bellows. For the belly — bellows relation, compare typologically Macedonian мев (mev, “abdomen, belly; bellows”). Also compare Ancient Greek φῦσα (phûsa, “bellows; bladder; ...”), Latin venter — vēsīca, Russian пу́зо (púzo) — пузы́рь (puzýrʹ), пузырёк (puzyrjók).

verb/ˈbɛli/
  1. To position one’s belly; to move on one’s belly.

  2. To swell and become protuberant; to bulge or billow.

    intransitive
  3. To cause to swell out; to fill.

    transitive
Where this word comes from

Etymology tree Proto-Indo-European *bʰelǵʰ- Proto-Indo-European *-is Proto-Indo-European *bʰólǵʰis Proto-Germanic *balgiz Proto-West Germanic *balgi Old English bielġ Middle English bely English belly Inherited from Middle English bely, beli, bali, below, belew, balyw, from Old English bielġ (“bag, pouch, bulge”), from Proto-West Germanic *balgi, *balgu, from Proto-Germanic *balgiz, *balguz (“skin, hide, bellows, bag”), from Proto-Indo-European *bʰelǵʰ- (“to swell, blow up”). Cognate with Dutch balg, German Balg, Danish bælg, Old Irish bolg, Welsh bol. Doublet of bellows, blague, bulge, and budge. See also bellows. For the belly — bellows relation, compare typologically Macedonian мев (mev, “abdomen, belly; bellows”). Also compare Ancient Greek φῦσα (phûsa, “bellows; bladder; ...”), Latin venter — vēsīca, Russian пу́зо (púzo) — пузы́рь (puzýrʹ), пузырёк (puzyrjók).

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Definitions, grammatical labels, IPA, etymology and examples: Wiktionary contributors, extracted by Kaikki / Wiktextract. Adapted under CC BY-SA 4.0. Selected fields and authored examples are shown; third-party quotations and audio are omitted. See contributor history.

Last enriched 2026-09-10. Definitions are in English. Romanizations are shown when supplied by the source; syllable estimates are omitted for unsupported scripts.