bead

Meaning

1. Prayer, later especially with a rosary.
2. Each in a string of small balls making up the rosary or paternoster.
3. A small, round object.
4. A small, round object.
5. A small, round object.
6. A small, round object.
7. A small, round object.
8. A small, round object.
9. A ridge, band, or molding.
10. A ridge, band, or molding.
11. 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.

pearl

drop

weld bead

glass bead

welded joint

welded seam

muck bar

small ball

welding seam

weld joint

fruit

single bead

hold-down strip

mound layer

bead moulding

brake bead

beaded glass

Frequency

Pronounced as (IPA)

/biːd/

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 Dutch gebed and bede, German Gebet.