lad
/læd/noun
lad is spelled L-A-D: 3 letters and one syllable. It appears 7.9 times per million words in written English, the 8,266th most frequent word form (wordfreq, 2021 data). As a noun, lad means “A boy or young man” (English Wiktionary, September 2026). The plural of lad is lads.
How many letters and syllables are in lad?
| Letters | 3: L-A-D |
|---|---|
| Syllables | 1 (from its American pronunciation) |
| In writing | 7.9 times per million words; the 8,266th most frequent word form |
| Wrong spellings searched | none 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 lad?
Lad appears 7.9 times per million words in written English, the 8,266th 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 lad?
- /læd/
- /laːd/
- /ləd/
Lad 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-lad.ogg, Wikimedia Commons (author and licence on each file's page).
What rhymes with lad?
No other word on PlainSpell ends in the same sounds as lad.
Spelled with the same letters in another order: dal.
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 lad
- lads plural
Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract).
What does lad mean?
The meanings the English Wiktionary records, quoted as written there (source below).
noun
- 1
A boy or young man.
- 2
UKA hedonistic or irresponsible young man; A Jack the lad.
I think he reckons he’s a bit of a lad.
- 3
A familiar term of address for a young man.
Come here, lad, and help me shift these boxes.
- 4
A groom who works with horses.
- 5
IrelandcolloquialThe penis.
- 6
A scammer.
noun
- 1
Abbreviation of left anterior descending artery.
- 2
Initialism of local authority district.
- 3
Initialism of language acquisition device.
- 4
Initialism of leukocyte adhesion deficiency.
Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract).
Lad in Spanish, French, German and Portuguese
| Language | Words |
|---|---|
| French | garçon , gars, jeune homme , palefrenier |
| German | Junge, Knabe, Bube , Bursche, junger Mann , Stallbursche |
| Portuguese | rapaz |
| Spanish | niño, chico, mozo, mozalbete , muchacho |
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 lad come from?
From Middle English ladde (“foot soldier, servant; male commoner; boy”), from late Old English *ladda (attested in Old English personal byname Ladda), probably of North Germanic origin. Compare Old Norse ladd (“hose, woolen stocking; sock”), which may have undergone semantic shift to mean a term of abuse (e.g. foolish youth, youngster of lower social status, etc.); thence by connotative amelioration coming to mean any young fellow.
Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract).