Find your perfect word!

Definition reed

Etymology 1

From Middle English rede, from Old English hr?od, from Proto-Germanic *hreud?, of uncertain origin. Akin to Saterland Frisian Rait (“reed”), West Frisian reid (“reed”), Dutch riet (“reed”), German Ried (“reed”). No cognates in North Germanic languages, but the existence of an otherwise unattested Gothic *????? (*hriud) was supposed by the brothers Grimm. They also theorised that the word may have a relation to the retas mentioned in Noctes Atticae (Aulus Gellius). The measuring reed sense is the translation of Akkadian qanûm ("cane") used in the Bible and elsewhere.

Noun

reed (countable and uncountable, plural reeds)

1. (countable) Any of various types of tall stiff perennial grass-like plants growing together in groups near water.
2. (countable) The hollow stem of these plants.
3. (countable, music) Part of the mouthpiece of certain woodwind instruments, comprising a thin piece of wood or metal which shakes very quickly to produce sound when a musician blows over it.
4. (countable, music) A musical instrument such as the clarinet or oboe, which produces sound when a musician blows on the reed.
5. (countable, weaving) A comb-like part of a beater for beating the weft when weaving.
6. (countable, historical) A piece of whalebone or similar for stiffening the skirt or waist of a woman's dress.
7. (uncountable, architecture) Reeding.
8. (mining) A tube containing the train of powder for igniting the charge in blasting.
9. Straw prepared for thatching a roof.
10. (poetic, obsolete) A missile weapon.
11. (archaic, metrology) A measuring rod.
    1. A Babylonian unit of measure the length of a reed, equal to half a nindan, or six cubits.

Verb

reed (third-person singular simple present reeds, present participle reeding, simple past and past participle reeded)

1. (transitive) To thatch.
2. To mill or mint with reeding.

Etymology 2

See ree

Verb

reed

1. simple past tense and past participle of ree

Etymology 3

Noun

reed (plural reeds)

1. (Britain, Scotland, dialectal) The fourth stomach of a ruminant; rennet.

Results 242 Words with the letters REED

You can also try words with the phrase REED, words starting with the letters REED, or words ending in the letters REED.

Favorites Searches

Words… ending with q, starting with q, starting with qa, starting with qo, with two letters, starting with x, starting with j, ending with j,

Some random searches: Words with the letters QWKA, Words with the letters BHAL, Words with the letters PGUCY, Words with the letters TVPNPE,