Dal

How to spell dal

3 letters · 1 syllable

How to pronounce dal

What does dal mean?

1. nounA South Asian dish of split pulses such as lentils, simmered and spiced into a thick stew.

Dal in a sentence

• She ladled the warm dal over a bowl of steamed rice.

• The restaurant served a creamy lentil dal with fresh naan.

Where does dal come from?

Language of origin: Sanskrit

This word comes from Hindi dāl, the name for dried split pulses such as lentils, peas, and beans, and for the thick spiced stew made by simmering them. The Hindi term descends from Sanskrit dala, which literally meant a split or a piece broken off, related to the verb dal, meaning 'to split' or 'to cleave'. The name is therefore wonderfully literal: these are pulses that have been split into halves, which is exactly how they are sold and cooked. English picked the word up during the era of British rule in India, with written uses recorded from the early nineteenth century onward. Because it was transcribed by ear from spoken Indian languages, it settled into several rival spellings, including dal, dhal, and daal, and that uncertainty over the missing or extra letters is the main spelling trap today.

How the word is built

• dal (from Sanskrit dala: a split piece, here a split pulse)

Words that sound like dal

They sound the same but mean different things, so the meaning decides which spelling to write.

• doll: A small model of a human figure, used as a child's toy.