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PlainSpell

bed

/bɛd/noun, verb

bed is spelled B-E-D: 3 letters and one syllable. It appears 117 times per million words in written English, the 904th most frequent word form (wordfreq, 2021 data). As a noun, bed means “A piece of furniture, usually flat and soft, on which to rest or sleep” (English Wiktionary, September 2026). The plural of bed is beds.

How many letters and syllables are in bed?

Letters3: B-E-D
Syllables1
In writing117 times per million words; the 904th most frequent word form
Wrong spellings searchednone measured in search
Rhymes with
Same letters

Sources: letters and syllables from the English Wiktionary's hyphenation or pronunciation; 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 bed?

Bed appears 117 times per million words in written English, the 904th 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 bed?

  • US /bɛd/
  • [beː]
  • Australia /bed/

Bed has one syllable.

Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract). Recordings: En-uk-bed.ogg, En-us-bed.ogg, Wikimedia Commons (author and licence on each file's page).

What rhymes with bed?

The 12 most written words on PlainSpell end in the same sounds as bed from its last stressed vowel (/ɛd/):

Spelled with the same letters in another order: deb.

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 bed

  • beds plural, present, singular, he/she/it
  • bedding participle, present
  • bedded participle, past

Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract).

What does bed mean?

The meanings the English Wiktionary records, quoted as written there (source below).

noun

  1. 1

    A piece of furniture, usually flat and soft, on which to rest or sleep.

    My cat often sleeps on my bed.

  2. 2

    A mattress.

    I find her bed too soft.

  3. 3

    A bedframe.

    That huge wood bed is too heavy for us to carry it that far.

  4. 4

    A prepared spot in which to spend the night.

    When camping, he usually makes a bed for the night from hay and a blanket.

  5. 5

    One's place of sleep or rest.

    Go to bed!

  6. 6

    Sleep; rest; getting to sleep.

    He's been afraid of bed since he saw the scary film.

  7. 7

    The time for going to sleep or resting in bed; bedtime.

    I read until bed.

  8. 8

    The equipment, staffing, etc., required for a patient in a medical institution.

    We have a patient who needs a bed right away.

verb

  1. 1

    To go to bed; to put oneself to sleep.

    I usually listen to music before I bed.

  2. 2

    To place in a bed.

  3. 3

    To furnish with a bed or bedding.

  4. 4

    To have sex (with).

  5. 5

    Of large game animals: to be at rest.

  6. 6

    To lay or put in any hollow place, or place of rest and security, surrounded or enclosed; to embed.

  7. 7

    To set in a soft matrix, as paving stones in sand, or tiles in cement.

  8. 8

    To set out (plants) in a garden bed.

noun

as BED
  1. 1

    Alternative form of B.Ed. (Bachelor of Education).

  2. 2

    Initialism of banana equivalent dose.

  3. 3

    Initialism of binge eating disorder.

Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract).

How do you abbreviate bed?

Wiktionary records one abbreviation of bed: bd.

Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract).

Bed in Spanish, French, German and Portuguese

LanguageWords
Frenchlit, couche (piece of furniture), gisement (deposit of ore, coal etc), coucher avec (to have sexual intercourse with)
GermanBett (piece of furniture), Lager (prepared spot to spend the night in), Fläche (flat surface or layer on which something else…), schlafen gehen (to go to a sleeping bed), sich betten (to put oneself to sleep)
Portuguesecama, leito (piece of furniture), superfície (flat surface or layer on which something else…), deitar (to go to a sleeping bed), dormir (to put oneself to sleep), base (foundation or supporting surface)
Spanishcama, lecho, catre, piltra, sobre, catrera (piece of furniture)

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 bed come from?

Inherited from Middle English bed, bedde, from Old English bedd, from Proto-West Germanic *badi, from Proto-Germanic *badją (“resting-place, plot of ground”).

Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract).

What to look up after bed