el
el Lexical Profile
el Game Scores & Validity
• noun
American An elevated railway or rapid transit train running on tracks raised above street level, especially in urban areas such as Chicago.
"Commuters waited on the wooden platform for the downtown el to arrive."
An extension or wing of a building built at a right angle to the main structure, forming an L-shape (variant spelling of ell).
"The farmhouse features a nineteenth-century kitchen el extending toward the barn."
The letter L or l.
"Remember that the word is spelled with a single el at the end."
• Rhymes for el
Word Origin & Etymology
In its transit sense, the word is a late 19th-century American English shortening of 'elevated' (as in elevated railway). As an architectural term and historical unit of length, it is a variant spelling of 'ell', derived from Old English eln ('forearm' or 'cubit').