Ale

How to spell ale

3 letters · 1 syllable

How to pronounce ale

What does ale mean?

1. nounA type of beer brewed from malted barley, traditionally without hops.

Ale in a sentence

• The pub serves a local ale brewed just down the road.

• He ordered a pint of pale ale with his lunch.

Where does ale come from?

Language of origin: Germanic

Ale comes from the Old English word 'ealu', a native Germanic word that simply meant a fermented malt drink. It belongs to the same family as Old Norse 'ol' and shares ancestry with words across the early northern European languages, all describing a brewed barley drink. For centuries 'ale' meant beer made without hops, while 'beer' (also an old word) referred to the hopped version; over time the distinction blurred and softened. The spelling settled on the simple three-letter form early, which is why the trap is purely its sound: it is an exact homophone of 'ail', the verb meaning to trouble or sicken. Because the two words sound identical, writers sometimes reach for the wrong one, even though their origins and meanings are completely separate.

How the word is built

• ale (single Old English root word; no affixes)