Panel

How to spell panel

5 letters · 2 syllables

How to pronounce panel

Say the part in capitals loudest.

What does panel mean?

1. nounA flat, usually rectangular section forming part of a door, wall, vehicle, or other surface.
2. nounA selected group of people gathered to discuss, judge, or advise on something.
3. verbTo cover or decorate a surface with flat sections of wood or other material.

Panel in a sentence

• noun

  The carpenter replaced a cracked panel in the front door.

• noun

  An expert panel reviewed the funding applications.

• verb

  They decided to panel the study walls in dark oak.

• noun

  A single solar panel powers the cabin lights.

• noun

  She sat on the interview panel for the new manager.

• verb

  The builders will panel the ceiling before painting.

Where does panel come from?

Language of origin: French

Panel comes from the Old French word panel, which meant a small piece of cloth or a little pad, and was a diminutive of pan, meaning a piece of cloth or a section of something. That word traces back to the Latin pannus, which literally meant a cloth or a rag. English took the word over in the medieval period, when a panel often described a piece of parchment on which the names of a jury were written; from that legal list came the modern sense of a panel as a group of selected people. Quite separately, the meaning of a flat, framed section (in a door, a wall, or later a control surface) grew out of the idea of a distinct piece set into a larger whole. The single -l ending is the main spelling trap: writers are sometimes tempted to double it as in 'pannel', but the standard form keeps just one l in every dialect.

How the word is built

• pan (from Latin pannus: cloth, piece)
• -el (Old French diminutive suffix: little piece)