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PlainSpell

bud

/bʌd/noun, verb

bud is spelled B-U-D: 3 letters and one syllable. It appears 12 times per million words in written English, the 6,230th most frequent word form (wordfreq, 2021 data). As a noun, bud means “A newly sprouted leaf or blossom that has not yet unfolded” (English Wiktionary, September 2026). The plural of bud is buds.

How many letters and syllables are in bud?

Letters3: B-U-D
Syllables1 (from its American pronunciation)
In writing12 times per million words; the 6,230th most frequent word form
Wrong spellings searchednone measured in search
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 bud?

Bud appears 12 times per million words in written English, the 6,230th 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 bud?

  • /bʌd/

Bud 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-bud.ogg, Wikimedia Commons (author and licence on each file's page).

What rhymes with bud?

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

Spelled with the same letters in another order: dub.

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 bud

  • buds plural, present, singular, he/she/it
  • budding participle, present
  • budded participle, past

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

What does bud mean?

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

noun

  1. 1

    A newly sprouted leaf or blossom that has not yet unfolded.

    After a long, cold winter, the trees finally began to produce buds.

  2. 2

    Something that has begun to develop.

    breast buds

  3. 3

    A small rounded body in the process of splitting from an organism, which may grow into a genetically identical new organism.

    In this slide, you can see a yeast cell forming buds.

  4. 4

    AustraliaCanadaUSslangCannabis that has been taken from the flowering part of the plant intended to be smoked.

    You got any buds?

  5. 5

    AustraliaCanadaUSslangMarijuana.

    Hey bro, want to smoke some bud?

  6. 6

    A weaned calf in its first year, so called because the horns are then beginning to bud.

  7. 7

    datedA pretty young girl.

  8. 8

    CanadaUSinformalBuddy, friend.

    I like to hang out with my buds on Saturday night.

  9. 9

    CanadainformalSynonym of guy, term of address for a man or person.

  10. 10

    informalrareBrother.

verb

  1. 1

    To form buds.

    The trees are finally starting to bud.

  2. 2

    To reproduce by splitting off buds.

    Yeast reproduces by budding.

  3. 3

    To begin to grow, or to issue from a stock in the manner of a bud, as a horn.

    Seeds of dissent were budding among the recruits.

  4. 4

    To be like a bud in respect to youth and freshness, or growth and promise.

  5. 5

    To put forth as a bud.

  6. 6

    To graft by inserting a bud under the bark of another tree.

noun

as BUD
  1. 1

    Initialism of benzodiazepine use disorder.

  2. 2

    informalInitialism of big ugly dish.

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

Bud in Spanish, French, German and Portuguese

LanguageWords
Frenchbourgeon, bouton (newly formed leaf or flower that has not yet…), beu (slang: potent cannabis), bourgeonner (to form buds), pote (slang: buddy)
GermanKnospe (newly formed leaf or flower that has not yet…), knospen (to form buds), Kumpel (slang: buddy), Spross (small rounded body in the process of splitting…)
Portuguesebotão, rebento (newly formed leaf or flower that has not yet…), brotar, rebentar (to form buds), parceiro (slang: buddy)
Spanishbrote, retoño, yema, capullo (newly formed leaf or flower that has not yet…), cogollo (slang: potent cannabis), florecer (to form buds)

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 bud come from?

From Middle English budde, bodde (“bud, seed pod”), from Old English *budde, from Proto-West Germanic *buʀdā, from Proto-Germanic *buzdǭ (compare archaic German Butte (“rosehip”), Swedish dialect bodd (“head”)), perhaps from Proto-Indo-European *bʰew-, *bu- (“to swell”). Compare also German Low German Butte, Butt (“bud”), Dutch bot (“bud”), regional German Butz, Butzen (“seed pod; apple core”), German Low German Haagbutt ("rosehip"; Haagbudden (“rosehips”, plural)).

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

What to look up after bud