bleed
/ˈbliːd/verb, noun
bleed is spelled B-L-E-E-D. The wrong spelling people search most is blead: about 140 Bing searches a month in the United States (September 2025 to August 2026), about 2 in 10 of all searches for the word. Bleed is a verb meaning “To shed blood through an injured blood vessel”.
How many letters and syllables are in bleed?
| Letters | 5: B-L-E-E-D |
|---|---|
| Syllables | 1 |
| In writing | 5.2 times per million words; the 10,843rd most frequent word form |
| Wrong spellings searched | 1; the most searched, blead, about 140 Bing searches a month (all of them) |
| 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); Bing searches in the United States: the average month from September 2025 to August 2026 (Microsoft Advertising keyword data through DataForSEO, read September 30, 2026); rhymes and same-letter words are computed by PlainSpell from its own word list.
How do you spell bleed?
Bleed is spelled B-L-E-E-D. One wrong spelling is searched or written often enough to measure; together they are about 2 in 10 of the searches for bleed in either form.
Bing searches in the United States: the average month from September 2025 to August 2026 (Microsoft Advertising keyword data through DataForSEO, read September 30, 2026). Wrong spellings are taken from Wiktionary entries tagged "misspelling" and its obsolete or nonstandard forms, Wikipedia's Lists of common misspellings and the codespell dictionary, then measured. The proofreader's marks show the change that corrects each one.
How common is bleed?
Bleed appears 5.2 times per million words in written English, the 10,843rd 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 bleed?
- /ˈbliːd/
- [ˈblɪi̯d]
Bleed has one syllable.
Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract). Recordings: LL-Q1860_(eng)-Vealhurl-bleed.wav, Wikimedia Commons (author and licence on each file's page).
What rhymes with bleed?
No other word on PlainSpell ends in the same sounds as bleed.
Spelled with the same letters in another order: bedel.
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 bleed
- bleeds present, singular, he/she/it, plural
- bleeding participle, present
- bled participle, past
Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract).
What does bleed mean?
The meanings the English Wiktionary records, quoted as written there (source below).
verb
- 1
To shed blood through an injured blood vessel.
If her nose bleeds, try to use ice.
- 2
To menstruate.
- 3
To let or draw blood from.
- 4
To take large amounts of money from.
- 5
To steadily lose (something vital).
The company was bleeding talent.
- 6
To spread from the intended location and stain the surrounding cloth or paper.
Ink traps counteract bleeding.
- 7
To remove air bubbles from a pipe containing other fluids.
- 8
To tap off high-pressure gas (usually air) from a system that produces high-pressure gas primarily for another purpose.
At low engine speeds, valves open to bleed some of the highly-compressed air from the later compressor stages, helping to prevent engine surging.
noun
- 1
An incident of bleeding, as in haemophilia.
- 2
A system for tapping hot, high-pressure air from a gas turbine engine for purposes such as cabin pressurization and airframe anti-icing.
When taking off at high altitude or at near-maximum weight, the bleeds have to be turned off temporarily, as they decrease engine power somewhat.
- 3
A narrow edge around a page layout, to be printed but cut off afterwards (added to allow for slight misalignment, especially with pictures that should run to the edge of the finished sheet).
- 4
A margin left at the edges of a shot to allow for the picture being cropped when it arrives at viewers' screens.
- 5
The situation where sound is picked up by a microphone from a source other than that which is intended.
- 6
The removal of air bubbles from a pipe containing other fluids.
- 7
The phenomenon of in-character feelings affecting a player's feelings or actions outside of the game.
Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract).
Bleed in Spanish, French, German and Portuguese
| Language | Words |
|---|---|
| French | saigner , purger , prélever , fond perdu |
| German | bluten , entlüften , Beschnitt , ausbluten , Blutung |
| Portuguese | sangrar, deitar sangue , purgar |
| Spanish | sangrar , sangría, sangrado , desangrar , desteñir |
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 bleed come from?
From Middle English bleden, from Old English blēdan (“to bleed”), from Proto-West Germanic *blōdijan, from Proto-Germanic *blōdijaną (“to bleed”), from *blōþą (“blood”).
Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract).