barrel

1. 1.

   a tube through which a bullet travels when a gun is fired

   Synonymsgun barrel

   Broadertube

   Part ofgun
2. 2.

   a cylindrical container that holds liquids

   Synonymscask

   Broadervessel

   Narrowerbeer barrelbutthogsheadkegpickle barrelshooktunwine cask

   Partsbreechbunghoopstavetap
3. 3.

   a bulging cylindrical shape; hollow with flat ends

   Synonymsdrum

   Broadercylinder
4. 4.

   the quantity that a barrel (of any size) will hold

   Synonymsbarrelful

   Broadercontainerful
5. 5.

   any of various units of capacity

   “a barrel of beer is 31 gallons and a barrel of oil is 42 gallons”

   Synonymsbbl

   BroaderUnited States liquid unitBritish capacity unit

   Part ofhogshead

   Partsgallon

1. 1.

   put in barrels

   Broaderput

Other forms of barrel

plural

barrels·

past tense or participle

barrelled

present participle

barrelling

Forms marked · are formed by the regular rule rather than recorded in the source data. English keeps a few hundred irregulars and the rest follow the pattern, so the rule is right far more often than not — but it is a rule, and the mark says so.

Questions about barrel

What does barrel mean?

barrel means "a tube through which a bullet travels when a gun is fired". That is the primary sense; the word has 6 in total, listed in full on this page.

How many syllables are in barrel?

barrel has 2 syllables: bar-rel. The stress falls on "bar". In IPA it is /ˈbæɹəl/.

What is another word for barrel?

Close synonyms include gun barrel, cask, drum, barrelful, bbl. Each sense on this page lists its own synonyms, because a word with several meanings rarely has one substitute that works for all of them.

Is barrel a common word?

barrel is banded "Common" — everyday vocabulary in speech and writing. The band comes from how often the word appears in a large corpus of everyday English, not from an editor's impression.