bocal

See also: boçal

English

A bassoon bocal (sense 1)

Etymology

Borrowed from French bocal. Doublet of boccale and pokal.

Pronunciation

• enPR: bōˈ kəl, bō kalˈ
• IPA^(key): /ˈboʊkəl/, /boʊˈkæl/

• Audio (Southern England):

  (file)

• Rhymes: -əʊkəl, -æl

Noun

bocal (plural bocals or bocaux)

1. A curved, tapered metal tube which connects the reed of several double reed woodwind instruments (such as the cor anglais, bassoon, and contrabassoon) to the rest of the instrument.
2. A cylindrical glass vessel with a short wide neck.
   • 1888, Victor Hugo, anonymous translator, “Ἀνάγκη [Anánkē]”, in Notre-Dame de Paris. […], volume II, New York, N.Y.: The Athenaeum Society, →OCLC, book VII, page 45:

     Something very similar to Faust’s cell presented itself to the view of Jehan when he ventured his head within the half-open door. It was a similar gloomy, dim-lighted nook. There was also a large fauteuil and a large table; compasses; alembics; skeletons of animals suspended from the ceiling; a sphere rolling on the floor; hippocéphales promiscuously with bocaux in which were quivering leaves of gold; […]

   • 1922 September 3, Blanche McManus, “The Town that Perfumes the World”, in St. Louis Post-Dispatch, volume 74, number 363, St. Louis, Mo., →ISSN, →OCLC, “The Post-Dispatch Sunday Magazine” section, page 5, column 3:

     One of the biggest features of this Grasse perfume industry is the distillation of these essences in their simple forms, selling them in bulk, in demijohns and estagons and bocaux, to the wholesale perfume makers, the fabricators and the second fusion operators throughout the worid.

   • 1979 October 24, Craig Claiborne, “Pate de foie gras called the ultimate”, in The Greenwood Commonwealth, Greenwood, Miss., published 26 October 1979, →ISSN, →OCLC, page 3, column 4:

     Foie gras comes in bocaux, hermetically sealed glass jars, or in fancy terrines, round porcelain crocks, fancily decorated and more expensive because of the packaging.

Translations

metal tube connecting a double reed to the instrument

• Catalan: tudell m, bufador m
• French: bocal (fr)
• Galician: tudel (gl)
• Icelandic: (on bassoons) ess (is) n, (on instruments of the oboe family) krókur (is) m
• Spanish: tudel m

French

Etymology

Borrowed from Italian boccale.

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /bɔ.kal/

• Audio (France (Vosges)):

  (file)

Noun

bocal m (plural bocaux)

1. jar
2. (fish) bowl

Descendants

• → English: bocal
• Haitian Creole: bokal

Further reading

• “bocal”, in Trésor de la langue française informatisé [Digitized Treasury of the French Language], 2012

Portuguese

Etymology

From boca +‎ -al.

Pronunciation

• (Brazil) IPA^(key): /boˈkaw/ [boˈkaʊ̯]

 

• (Portugal) IPA^(key): /buˈkal/ [buˈkaɫ]

• (Portugal) IPA^(key): /buˈkal/ [buˈkaɫ]
  • (Southern Portugal) IPA^(key): /buˈka.li/

• Homophones: bucal (Portugal), vocal (Porto)
• Rhymes: (Portugal) -al, (Brazil) -aw
• Hyphenation: bo‧cal

Noun

bocal m (plural bocais)

1. an aperture
   1. brim (of a bottle or any other container)

      Encha até o bocal. ― Fill it up to the brim.

      Synonym: boca

   2. (construction) the metal piece into which a light bulb is inserted and rotated
   3. the part of the candlestick into which the candle is inserted
   4. (construction) parapet at the edge of a cistern or well
   5. lower part of a coat's sleeve
2. in saddle animals
   1. leather strip initially used to tame a saddle animal
   2. silk or cotton strip that, in saddle animals, replaces the leather strip
   3. bit (metal in horse’s mouth)

      Synonyms: morso, bocado

3. nozzle
4. (music) a type of embouchure
5. (medicine) a channel that, when fixated to the tip of a duct, regulates the liquid flux or is used to pass fluid

Related terms

• bocado

Further reading

• “bocal”, in Dicionário Aulete Digital (in Portuguese), Rio de Janeiro: Lexikon Editora Digital, 2008–2026

Romanian

Noun

bocal n (plural bocaluri)

1. alternative form of pocal

Declension

	singular		plural
	indefinite	definite	indefinite	definite
nominative-accusative	bocal	bocalul	bocaluri	bocalurile
genitive-dative	bocal	bocalului	bocaluri	bocalurilor
vocative	bocalule		bocalurilor

Spanish

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /boˈkal/ [boˈkal]
• Rhymes: -al
• Syllabification: bo‧cal

Noun

bocal m (plural bocales)

1. A kind of pitcher or jar

Further reading

• “bocal”, in Diccionario de la lengua española [Dictionary of the Spanish Language] (in Spanish), online version 23.8.1, Royal Spanish Academy [Spanish: Real Academia Española], 15 December 2025