Bile

How to spell bile

4 letters · 1 syllable

How to pronounce bile

What does bile mean?

1. nounThe bitter greenish-yellow fluid made by the liver that helps the body digest fats.
2. nounBitterness, ill temper, or anger directed at someone or something.

Bile in a sentence

• The gallbladder stores bile until it is needed for digestion.

• Her email was full of bile about the way the project had been handled.

• After the operation, bile began to drain through the tube as expected.

• He could not hide the bile in his voice when his rival was promoted.

Where does bile come from?

Language of origin: Latin

The word arrived in English in the early 1600s from the French bile, which itself came directly from the Latin bilis, the name for the bitter, greenish-yellow fluid that the liver secretes to help digest fat. In the old system of medicine, the body was thought to be governed by four humours, and two of them were forms of bile: yellow bile, linked to a quick, fiery temper, and black bile, blamed for gloom and depression. That medical theory is exactly why bile came to mean bitter anger or ill temper as well as the physical fluid. The Latin root also lies behind 'bilious', once used to describe someone overflowing with yellow bile and therefore peevish. The spelling is mercifully regular: a single syllable that rhymes with 'mile', so the only real risk is confusing it with the homophone 'bile' has none common, though writers sometimes pause over the silent finishing 'e'.

How the word is built

• bile (from Latin bilis: the bitter fluid secreted by the liver)