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PlainSpell

blood

/blʌd/noun, verb

blood is spelled B-L-O-O-D: 5 letters and one syllable. It appears 126 times per million words in written English, the 831st most frequent word form (wordfreq, 2021 data). As a noun, blood means “A vital liquid flowing in the bodies of many types of animals that usually conveys nutrients and oxygen. In vertebrates, it is colored red by…” (English Wiktionary, September 2026). The plural of blood is bloods.

How many letters and syllables are in blood?

Letters5: B-L-O-O-D
Syllables1 (from its American pronunciation)
In writing126 times per million words; the 831st most frequent word form
Wrong spellings searchednone measured in search
Sounds like
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 blood?

Blood appears 126 times per million words in written English, the 831st 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 blood?

  • /blʌd/
  • /blʊd/
  • /blʊd/

Blood 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-blood.ogg, En-uk-blood.ogg, LL-Q1860_(eng)-Back_ache-blood.wav, Wikimedia Commons (author and licence on each file's page).

Words people confuse with blood

Sounds like: blud (Wiktionary's homophone list; some hold only in some accents).

Also written: blood, sweat, and tears, blud.

Sources: English Wiktionary (homophones, alternative spellings).

What rhymes with blood?

No other word on PlainSpell ends in the same sounds as blood.

Spelled with the same letters in another order: boldo.

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 blood

  • bloods plural, present, singular, he/she/it
  • bl00d
  • blooding participle, present
  • blooded participle, past
  • 🅱
  • 🅱️

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

What does blood mean?

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

noun

  1. 1

    A vital liquid flowing in the bodies of many types of animals that usually conveys nutrients and oxygen. In vertebrates, it is colored red by hemoglobin, is conveyed by arteries and veins, is pumped by the heart and is usually generated in bone marrow.

    Some insects are known for consuming blood.

  2. 2

    A family relationship due to birth, such as that between siblings; contrasted with relationships due to marriage or adoption. See blood relative, blood relation.

  3. 3

    A person or people related to one by birth; one's biological relative or relatives.

    She may not be my blood, but we grew up together, and as far as I'm concerned she's my sister.

  4. 4

    One of the four humours in the human body.

  5. 5

    The endometrial lining as it is shed in menstruation; menstrual fluid or period blood.

  6. 6

    informalA blood test or blood sample.

  7. 7

    The sap or juice which flows in or from plants.

  8. 8

    The juice of anything, especially if red.

verb

  1. 1

    To cause something to be covered with blood; to bloody.

  2. 2

    To let blood (from); to bleed.

  3. 3

    To initiate into warfare or a blood sport, traditionally by smearing with the blood of the first kill witnessed.

  4. 4

    obsoleteTo make eager for bloodshed or combat; to incite or enrage against.

noun

as Blood
  1. 1

    A member of the Los Angeles gang the Bloods, who typically wear red and have an intense and bitter rivalry with the Crips.

    My union with the neighborhood kids teaches me Bloods don't say or write words starting with c's. This is how Bloods disrespect Crips. They replace all c's with k's or b's and cross out all remaining c's in the word.

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

How do you abbreviate blood?

Wiktionary records one abbreviation of blood: bl.

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

Blood in Spanish, French, German and Portuguese

LanguageWords
Frenchsang (vital liquid flowing in human and animal bodies)
GermanBlut, Bluet, Bluad (vital liquid flowing in human and animal bodies), Blutsbande (family relationship due to birth, e.g. between…), anbluten (to cause to be covered with blood)
Portuguesesangue (vital liquid flowing in human and animal bodies), ensanguentar (to cause to be covered with blood), teste/amostra de sangue (blood test or blood sample)
Spanishsangre, crúor (vital liquid flowing in human and animal bodies), lazo de sangre (family relationship due to birth, e.g. between…), ensangrentar (to cause to be covered with blood)

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 blood come from?

From Middle English blood, from Old English blōd, from Proto-West Germanic *blōd, from Proto-Germanic *blōþą, possibly from Proto-Indo-European *bʰel- ("to swell") + -ó- (thematic vowel) + -to (nominalizer), i.e. "that which bursts out".

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

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