# beard

> English word · Noun · IPA /bɪəd/ · frequency rank #6,334

## Definitions
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.
8. Long, hairlike feathers that protrude from the chest of a turkey.
9. A barb or sharp point of an arrow or other instrument, projecting backward to prevent the head from being easily drawn out.
10. The curved underside of an axehead, extending from the lower end of the cutting edge to the axehandle.
11. That part of the underside of a horse's lower jaw which is above the chin, and bears the curb of a bridle.
12. That part of a type which is between the shoulder of the shank and the face.
13. A fake customer or companion; an intermediary.
14. A fake customer or companion; an intermediary.
15. A fake customer or companion; an intermediary.

## Etymology
PIE word
 *bʰardʰéh₂
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.
Cognates
Cognate with Scots beird (“beard”), Yola bearde (“beard”), North Frisian biard (“beard”), Saterland Frisian Boart (“beard”), West Frisian burd (“beard”), Bavarian Bårt (“beard”), Dutch baard (“beard”), German Bart (“beard”), German Low German and Luxembourgish Baart (“beard”), Vilamovian biöt (“beard”), Yiddish באָרד (bord, “beard”), Icelandic barð (“brim; edge, ridge”), Norwegian Bokmål bart (“moustache”), Norwegian Nynorsk bard, barde (“edge, rim”), bart (“moustache”), Crimean Gothic bars (“beard”); also Latin barba (“beard”), Latvian bārda (“beard”), Lithuanian barzda (“beard”), Belarusian барада́ (baradá, “beard”), Bulgarian and Macedonian брада́ (bradá, “beard; chin”), Czech, Slovak, and Slovene brada (“beard”), Russian and Ukrainian борода́ (borodá, “beard”), Serbo-Croatian бра́да, bráda (“beard”). Doublet of barb.

## Easily confused with
- **bed** (https://plainspell.com/en/vs/beard-vs-bed)
- **ber** (https://plainspell.com/en/vs/beard-vs-ber)
- **beat** (https://plainspell.com/en/vs/beard-vs-beat)
- **beer** (https://plainspell.com/en/vs/beard-vs-beer)
- **bird** (https://plainspell.com/en/vs/beard-vs-bird)
- **bend** (https://plainspell.com/en/vs/beard-vs-bend)
- **brad** (https://plainspell.com/en/vs/beard-vs-brad)
- **beau** (https://plainspell.com/en/vs/beard-vs-beau)
- **Bert** (https://plainspell.com/en/vs/beard-vs-bert)
- **berg** (https://plainspell.com/en/vs/beard-vs-berg)
- **boar** (https://plainspell.com/en/vs/beard-vs-boar)
- **Bern** (https://plainspell.com/en/vs/beard-vs-bern)
- **Berk** (https://plainspell.com/en/vs/beard-vs-berk)
- **board** (https://plainspell.com/en/vs/beard-vs-board)
- **brand** (https://plainspell.com/en/vs/beard-vs-brand)
- **bread** (https://plainspell.com/en/vs/beard-vs-bread)
- **bears** (https://plainspell.com/en/vs/beard-vs-bears)
- **beast** (https://plainspell.com/en/vs/beard-vs-beast)
- **beats** (https://plainspell.com/en/vs/beard-vs-beats)
- **berry** (https://plainspell.com/en/vs/beard-vs-berry)

## Common misspellings (6)
`baerd`, `bbeard`, `beadr`, `beardd`, `bearrd`, `ebard`

## Source
Compiled from Wiktionary via kaikki.org (CC BY-SA). Data vintage: 2026-05-06.
Canonical page: https://plainspell.com/en/word/beard