bred
/bɹɛd/verb, noun
bred is spelled B-R-E-D: 4 letters and one syllable. It appears 6.2 times per million words in written English, the 9,735th most frequent word form (wordfreq, 2021 data). As a verb, bred means “simple past and past participle of breed” (English Wiktionary, September 2026).
How many letters and syllables are in bred?
| Letters | 4: B-R-E-D |
|---|---|
| Syllables | 1 (from its American pronunciation) |
| In writing | 6.2 times per million words; the 9,735th most frequent word form |
| Wrong spellings searched | none measured in search |
| Pairs people search | |
| Rhymes with |
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); 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 common is bred?
Bred appears 6.2 times per million words in written English, the 9,735th 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 bred?
- US /bɹɛd/
- Australia /bɹed/
- /bɾɛd/
Bred 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: LL-Q1860_(eng)-Vealhurl-bred.wav, LL-Q1860_(eng)-Wodencafe-bred.wav, Wikimedia Commons (author and licence on each file's page).
Words people confuse with bred
Word pairs people search, with the monthly searches for “a vs b” (G: Google, B: Bing, United States).
Also written: braid.
Sources: Google and Bing searches (September 2025 to August 2026, through DataForSEO); English Wiktionary (homophones, alternative spellings).
What rhymes with bred?
The 12 most written words on PlainSpell end in the same sounds as bred from its last stressed vowel (/ɛd/):
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 bred
- breds plural
Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract).
What does bred mean?
The meanings the English Wiktionary records, quoted as written there (source below).
verb
- 1
simple past and past participle of breed
noun
- 1
Alternative form of braid (“board, shelf, plank”).
Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract).
Where does bred come from?
See the etymology of the corresponding lemma form.
Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract).