bead

C2+ Topic:Materials & Substances

US /bid/ UK /biːd/ See IPA manual

Meanings

1

noun
a small pierced ball strung as ornament; also a drop of liquid

A bead of sweat trickled down his temple.

Thesaurus

Synonyms

1 noun · a small pierced ball strung... droplet drop globule pellet ball blob

Word family

Derived forms beadedbeadingbeady

Related forms bid

Simplified etymology

Bead is an Old English word whose original meaning was “prayer.” Its modern sense arose from the beads of a rosary, each of which represented a prayer; it is related to bid in its early sense “ask” or “beg.”

Etymology

From Old English gebed ('prayer'); the sense shifted via 'prayer beads' on a rosary, since one 'told one's beads' (counted prayers), to the small perforated balls themselves.

gebed Old English *bidą Proto-Germanic

View etymology graph ->

Topics

Materials & Substances

External links

# bead

**Type:** Word
**Level:** C2+
**Part of speech:** noun
**IPA (US):** /bid/
**IPA (UK):** /biːd/

## Meanings
1. a small pierced ball strung as ornament; also a drop of liquid

## Examples
- A bead of sweat trickled down his temple.

## Synonyms
- droplet
- drop
- globule
- pellet
- ball
- blob

## Derived Forms
- beaded
- beading
- beady

## Related Forms
- bid

## Roots and Affixes
- Root: gebed
- Root: *bidą

## Etymology
From Old English gebed ('prayer'); the sense shifted via 'prayer beads' on a rosary, since one 'told one's beads' (counted prayers), to the small perforated balls themselves.

## AI Etymology
bead comes from Old English gebed ('prayer'); the sense shifted via 'prayer beads' on a rosary, since one 'told one's beads' (counted prayers), to the small perforated balls themselves. The path is chiefly one of transmission: an older form is taken into English, with the word's shape and meaning carried through the language names and forms preserved in the history. In modern use, the noun sense is "a small pierced ball strung as ornament; also a drop of liquid", which keeps the etymology connected to the word's present dictionary value rather than treating it as a merely historical label. The wider word family includes related English forms such as bid and derivatives such as beaded, beading, beady, showing how the same base continues to support neighboring English vocabulary. The principal historical forms in the chain include Old English gebed, Proto-Germanic *bidą, which anchor the explanation in named linguistic material.

## Topics
- Materials & Substances

markdown