Learn English – the name for the bit of the bell that actually rings

word-request

A bell consists of a large hollow piece of metal (or, rarely, some other material) and a clapper which strikes the metal and makes it ring.

Is there a word that distinguishes specifically the big, cup-shaped piece of metal that gets hit, from the instrument as a whole?

For example:

The clapper is suspended within the < word > and strikes the < word > to produce a tone.

The best I could come up with is 'bell head', but the internet gives me only "Bellhead":

(slang) A supporter of traditional centralized telecommunications networks, contrasted with nethead (a supporter of the Internet and its flexibility and technical underpinnings).

https://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/Bellhead

Best Answer

It appears the part where the clapper or hammer hits the bell from the inside is called the sound bow. And the entire shape of the bell is called a cup

From The Carillon: How it works

The shape of a true bell is derived from two basic forms: the cup and the hollow sphere. The cup form or "open" bell is more common and is used in a great variety of profiles for almost all kinds of Western European tower bells. The sides of this form flare out from the top slightly for two-thirds of their length and then more rapidly towards the bottom. [...] The shape of a common open bell consists of a head or "vertex," shoulders, waist, the "sound bow," the "lip" or rim as the lower edge and the open "mouth." With the increase in flare at the outside there is also an increase of the thickness of the bell's wall. The maximum thickness occur near the rim where the clapper or hammer strikes the bell, called the sound bow.

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The Harvard Dictionary of Music enter image description here

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