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'Peal' is the ringing of bells or a burst of loud sound; 'peel' means to remove skin from fruit, or the skin itself.
Side-by-side comparison
"Peal" is a loud, resonant, sustained sound, especially the ringing of bells. "A peal of bells" = a series of ringing bells. "Peals of laughter" = a burst of loud, ringing laughter.
A peal of church bells rang across the village at noon.
She burst into a peal of laughter at the unexpected joke.
Peals of thunder rolled across the mountains all afternoon.
"Peel" as a verb is to remove the outer skin of a fruit or vegetable. "Peel an orange" = strip off its skin. As a noun: the skin or rind itself. "Lemon peel" = the yellow outer layer of a lemon.
Peel the potatoes and cut them into quarters before boiling.
Orange peel can be used to flavour cakes and sauces.
The paint started to peel off the walls after the flooding.
Common mistake
- •"A peel of thunder" when meaning a burst of sound is wrong (correct: peal).
- •And "The church bells peeled" when meaning they rang is wrong (correct: pealed).
Trick to remember it
- •"Peal" has EA like "beat" and "real", a peal of bells is a real, resonant beat.
- •"Peel" has double E, the peel is the outer layer you remove.
Quick rule
- •Is it the resonant sound (bells, laughter, thunder)? "Peal".
- •Is it removing fruit skin or the skin itself? "Peel".
Did you know?
Change ringing, the art of ringing church bells in non-repeating mathematical sequences, is uniquely and passionately British. Ringers perform every possible permutation ("change") without repetition. With 8 bells there are 8! = 40,320 possible sequences; completing them all takes about 18 continuous hours. The tradition began in the 17th century and remains alive in over 6,000 UK churches. A "peal" in ringers' technical terms means completing at least 5,040 changes, roughly 3 hours of continuous ringing. The 17th-century mathematician Leibniz studied change ringing as a mathematical system.
Practise what you learned
Exercise 1 · Pick the right one
She used a _____ er to remove the skin from the potatoes quickly.
Exercise 2 · Pick the right one
A _____ of laughter rang out from the kitchen when they heard the joke.
Exercise 3 · Form the word
Related word pairs
One means to receive or agree to something, the other means to exclude or not include.
'Advice' is the guidance you receive (noun); 'advise' is the act of giving that guidance (verb).
'Affect' is the verb meaning to influence something; 'effect' is the noun meaning result or consequence.
'Aisle' is the walkway between rows of seats or shelves; 'isle' is a small island.
Bryan López
Founder of SpeakUP Academy