Bracelets

How to spell bracelets

9 letters · 2 syllables

How to pronounce bracelets

Say the part in capitals loudest.

What does bracelets mean?

1. nounDecorative bands or chains worn around the wrist or arm.

Bracelets in a sentence

• She kept her gold bracelets in a velvet jewellery box.

• The market stall sold beaded bracelets to tourists all summer.

Where does bracelets come from?

Language of origin: French

This word traces back to the Latin bracchium, meaning 'arm', which passed into Old French as 'bras' for the arm and produced 'bracel', a small ornament worn on the arm. English borrowed 'bracelet' from French in the 1400s, attaching the French diminutive ending -let to give the sense of a little arm band. The same arm root survives in 'embrace', literally to take into one's arms, and in 'brace' for a supporting pair. The tricky part for writers is the unstressed middle: the 'ce' is sounded like a soft 's', so the spelling keeps the 'c' from the original 'bracel' even though the ear hears an 's'. The plural simply adds -s to give bracelets.

How the word is built

• brace (from Latin bracchium: arm)
• -let (small/diminutive suffix)
• -s (plural)