beard
/bɪɹd/noun, verb
beard is spelled B-E-A-R-D: 5 letters and one syllable. It appears 12 times per million words in written English, the 6,347th most frequent word form (wordfreq, 2021 data). As a noun, beard means “Facial hair on the chin, cheeks, jaw and neck” (English Wiktionary, September 2026). The plural of beard is beards.
How many letters and syllables are in beard?
| Letters | 5: B-E-A-R-D |
|---|---|
| Syllables | 1 (from its American pronunciation) |
| In writing | 12 times per million words; the 6,347th most frequent word form |
| Wrong spellings searched | none measured in search |
| Rhymes with | |
| Same letters |
Sources: letters and syllables from the English Wiktionary's hyphenation or pronunciation and the CMU Pronouncing Dictionary; written frequency: wordfreq 3.1 (a 2021 snapshot of Wikipedia, subtitles, news, books, web text and social media); rhymes and same-letter words are computed by PlainSpell from its own word list.
How common is beard?
Beard appears 12 times per million words in written English, the 6,347th most frequent word form in the list.
Source: written frequency: wordfreq 3.1 (a 2021 snapshot of Wikipedia, subtitles, news, books, web text and social media).
How do you pronounce beard?
- UK /bɪəd/
- UK [bɪːd]
- US /bɪɹd/
Beard has one syllable (counted from its American pronunciation in the CMU Pronouncing Dictionary).
Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract). Recordings: En-us-beard.ogg, Wikimedia Commons (author and licence on each file's page).
What rhymes with beard?
3 words on PlainSpell end in the same sounds as beard from its last stressed vowel (/ɪɹd/):
Spelled with the same letters in another order: bread, debar.
Computed by PlainSpell from the pronunciations in the English Wiktionary (dump of September 2, 2026): a rhyme shares every sound from the last stressed vowel to the end; ordered by written frequency (wordfreq 3.1).
Forms of beard
- beards plural, present, singular, he/she/it
- bearding participle, present
- bearded participle, past
Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract).
What does beard mean?
The meanings the English Wiktionary records, quoted as written there (source below).
noun
- 1
Facial hair on the chin, cheeks, jaw and neck.
- 2
The cluster of small feathers at the base of the beak in some birds.
- 3
The appendages to the jaw in some cetaceans, and to the mouth or jaws of some fishes.
- 4
The byssus of certain shellfish.
- 5
The gills of some bivalves, such as the oyster.
- 6
The hairs of the labial palpi of moths and butterflies.
- 7
The long or stiff hairs on a plant; the awn.
the beard of grain
- 8
Long, hairlike feathers that protrude from the chest of a turkey.
verb
- 1
obsoleteTo grow hair on the chin and jaw.
- 2
To boldly and bravely oppose or confront, often to the chagrin of the one being bearded.
Robin Hood is always shown as bearding the Sheriff of Nottingham.
- 3
To take by the beard; to seize, pluck, or pull the beard of (a man), in anger or contempt.
- 4
To deprive (an oyster or similar shellfish) of the gills.
- 5
Of bees, to accumulate together in a beard-like shape.
- 6
slangOf a gay man or woman: to accompany a gay person of the opposite sex in order to give the impression that they are heterosexual.
Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract).
Beard in Spanish, French, German and Portuguese
| Language | Words |
|---|---|
| French | barbe |
| German | Bart , Alibifreundin |
| Portuguese | barba |
| Spanish | barba , jotera, pantalla, tapadera , barbar, embarbecer |
Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract). Translations are Wiktionary's, by sense; a linked word has its own PlainSpell page.
Where does beard come from?
From Middle English berd, bard, bærd, from Old English beard, from Proto-West Germanic *bard, from Proto-Germanic *bardaz, from Proto-Indo-European *bʰardʰeh₂, *bʰh₂erdʰeh₂.
Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract).