bead
English · Thesaurus
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Written by a house AI from the entry below, in your language. The entry itself is the source.
bead¹
- /ˈbiːd/
- [ˈbɪi̯d]
Sounds like Bede · Rhymes with -iːd
Where it comes from
From Middle English bede (“a prayer”), also “a bead for counting prayers” in a peire of bedes (literally “a pair of beads”), from Old English bedu, bed, ġebed (“a request, entreaty, prayer”), from Proto-West Germanic *bedu, *bed, *gabed, from Proto-Germanic *bedō, *bedą.
Cognate with Saterland Frisian Gebäd (“prayer”), Cimbrian gapéet (“prayer”), Dutch gebed and bede (“prayer”), German Gebet (“prayer”), Low German Gebett (“prayer”), Luxembourgish Gebiet (“prayer”), Vilamovian gybāt (“prayer”).
noun beads
- Prayer, later especially with a rosary. That he must believe in the Pope;—go to Mass;—cross himself;—tell his beads;—be a good Catholick, and that this, in all conscience, was enough to carry him to heaven.
-
Each in a string of small balls making up the rosary or paternoster.
Holonym: prayer beads
Similar: prayer bead
- A small, round object with a hole to allow it to be threaded on a cord or wire, particularly for decorative purposes.
- Various small, round solid objects. Similar studies of rats have employed four different intracranial resorbable, slow sustained release systems—surgical foam, a thermal gel depot, a microcapsule or biodegradable polymer beads.
- A small drop of water or other liquid. beads of sweat
- A bubble, in spirits.
- A small, round ball at the end of a barrel of a gun used for aiming. She drew a bead on the target and fired.
- Knowledge sufficient to direct one's activities to a purpose. We now have a bead on the main technical issues for the project
- A rigid edge of a tire that mounts it on a wheel; tire bead.
-
A narrow molding with semicircular section.
Similar: beading
- A glassy drop of molten flux, as borax or microcosmic salt, used as a solvent and color test for several mineral earths and oxides, as of iron, manganese, etc., before the blowpipe. the borax bead; the iron bead, etc.
- A decorative, convex, rounded profile (often a half-circle) cut into an edge or surface of wood, typically defined by a narrow, deep channel called a quirk.
verb beads · beading · beaded
- To form into a bead. The raindrops beaded on the car's waxed finish.
- To apply beads to. She spent the morning beading the gown.
- To form into a bead. He beaded some solder for the ends of the wire.
- To cause beads to form on (something). Only the hum of the miserable creatures stirred the heavy murk that beaded our foreheads with sweat as we pushed our way through it.
BEAD²
proper noun
- Acronym of Broadband Equity, Access, and Deployment. The language fails to specify whether states that accept the funding for AI infrastructure could risk losing their original BEAD allotments if found out of compliance, it fails to address the broad and vague definitions of covered technologies, and it fails to address the sole problem it sought to a
Thesaurus
Closest in meaning: beadwork, drop, astragal, pearl, point, counterfoil, keeper, marvel, globule, stub, ball, lug, ring, earring, stringing, tread
Translations
Every language
noun small, round, pierced object
| Español | cuenta, mullo, abalorio, rocalla, gargantilla, mostacilla |
|---|---|
| 한국어 | 구슬 guseul |
| 日本語 | ビーズ bīzu, 南京玉 nankindama |
| 中文 | 珠子 zhūzi |
| Kiswahili | ushanga |
| Português | conta, missanga |
| Français | perle |
| Deutsch | Perle |
| Italiano | grano, perlina |
| Ελληνικά | χάντρα chántra |
| Русский | бу́сина búsina |
noun front sight of a gun
| Deutsch | Korn |
|---|
noun rosary ball
| Español | cuenta, agallón, mullo |
|---|---|
| 한국어 | 비즈 bijeu |
| 日本語 | ロザリオ rozario |
| 中文 | 念珠 niànzhū, 珠 zhū |
| Kiswahili | tasbihi |
| Português | conta |
| Français | grain |
| Italiano | grano |
| Русский | би́сер bíser, бу́сы búsy, чётки čótki |
| Tiếng Việt | chuỗi hạt, tràng hạt |
noun small drop of liquid
| 中文 | 小滴 xiǎodī |
|---|---|
| Português | gota |
| Français | gouttelette |
| Deutsch | Tropfen |
| Italiano | goccia, gocciolina |
| Ελληνικά | στάλα stála |
| Русский | ка́пля káplja, ка́пелька kápelʹka |
Talk about this word "bead." Wiktionary, via Micwyn, micwyn.com/word/bead. Accessed 6 Nov. 2026. bead. (n.d.). In Wiktionary, via Micwyn. Retrieved November 6, 2026, from https://micwyn.com/word/bead "bead." Wiktionary, via Micwyn. Accessed November 6, 2026. https://micwyn.com/word/bead.Cite this
@misc{bead_2026,
title = {bead},
howpublished = {Wiktionary, via Micwyn},
year = {2026},
url = {https://micwyn.com/word/bead},
urldate = {2026-11-06}
}
