rail.
A horizontal bar extending between supports and used for support or as a barrier; a railing.
Meaning & usage
A horizontal bar extending between supports and used for support or as a barrier; a railing.
The metal bar forming part of the track for a railroad.
A railroad; a railway, as a means of transportation.
We travelled to the seaside by rail.
a small Scottish village not accessible by rail
A conductor maintained at a fixed electrical potential relative to ground, to which other circuit components are connected.
ISA devices draw power from the +5 V, −5 V, +12 V, and −12 V rails of the power supply unit.
A horizontal piece of wood that serves to separate sections of a door or window.
One of the lengthwise edges of a surfboard.
A vertical section on one side of a web page.
We're experimenting with ads in the right-hand rail.
A large line (portion or serving of a powdery illegal drug).
Each of two vertical side bars supporting the rungs of a ladder.
The raised edge of the game board.
Where this word comes from
Etymology tree Proto-Indo-European *h₃reǵ- Proto-Indo-European *-eti Proto-Indo-European *h₃réǵeti Proto-Italic *regō Latin regō Proto-Indo-European *-tḗr Proto-Indo-European *-trom Proto-Indo-European *-tlom, *-dʰlom Latin -ula Latin rēgulabor. Proto-West Germanic *regulu Old English regol ▲ Latin rēgula Old French reillebor. Middle English rail English rail From Middle English rail, rayl, *reȝel, *reȝol (found in reȝolsticke (“a ruler”)), partly from Old English regol (“a ruler, straight bar”) and partly from Old French reille; both from Latin regula (“rule, bar”), from regō (“to rule, to guide, to govern”); see regular. Doublet of regal, regula, rigol, and rule.
To travel by railway.
To place on a track.
To enclose with rails or a railing.
They ought to rail off the playground.
To range in a line.
To sexually penetrate in a rough manner.
To snort a line of powdered drugs.
Where this word comes from
Etymology tree Proto-Indo-European *h₃reǵ- Proto-Indo-European *-eti Proto-Indo-European *h₃réǵeti Proto-Italic *regō Latin regō Proto-Indo-European *-tḗr Proto-Indo-European *-trom Proto-Indo-European *-tlom, *-dʰlom Latin -ula Latin rēgulabor. Proto-West Germanic *regulu Old English regol ▲ Latin rēgula Old French reillebor. Middle English rail English rail From Middle English rail, rayl, *reȝel, *reȝol (found in reȝolsticke (“a ruler”)), partly from Old English regol (“a ruler, straight bar”) and partly from Old French reille; both from Latin regula (“rule, bar”), from regō (“to rule, to guide, to govern”); see regular. Doublet of regal, regula, rigol, and rule.
Any of several birds in the family Rallidae.
Where this word comes from
From French râle, rale, from Middle French raalle, from Old French rasle. Compare Medieval Latin rallus. Named from its harsh cry, Vulgar Latin *rasculum, from Latin rādere (“to scrape”).
To complain violently (against, about).
Where this word comes from
From Middle French railler.
An item of clothing; a cloak or other garment; a dress.
Specifically, a woman's headscarf or neckerchief.
Where this word comes from
From Middle English rail, reil, from Old English hræġl (“garment, dress, robe”). Cognate with Old Frisian hreil, reil, Old Saxon hregil, Old High German hregil (“clothing, garment, dress”).
To gush; to flow.
To blow.
Where this word comes from
Probably from Anglo-Norman raier, Middle French raier.
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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.