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PlainSpell

pad

/pæd/noun, verb, interjection

pad is spelled P-A-D: 3 letters and one syllable. It appears 10 times per million words in written English, the 7,009th most frequent word form (wordfreq, 2021 data). As a noun, pad means “A flattened mass of anything soft, to sit or lie on” (English Wiktionary, September 2026). The plural of pad is pads.

How many letters and syllables are in pad?

Letters3: P-A-D
Syllables1
In writing10 times per million words; the 7,009th most frequent word form
Wrong spellings searchednone measured in search
Rhymes with
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); rhymes and same-letter words are computed by PlainSpell from its own word list.

How common is pad?

Pad appears 10 times per million words in written English, the 7,009th 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 pad?

  • US /pæd/
  • British /pad/
  • /pɛd/

Pad has one syllable.

Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract). Recordings: En-au-pad.ogg, Wikimedia Commons (author and licence on each file's page).

What rhymes with pad?

10 words on PlainSpell end in the same sounds as pad from its last stressed vowel (/æd/):

Spelled with the same letters in another order: dap.

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 pad

  • pads plural, present, singular, he/she/it
  • padding participle, present
  • padded participle, past
  • padde

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

What does pad mean?

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

noun

  1. 1

    A flattened mass of anything soft, to sit or lie on.

  2. 2

    A cushion used as a saddle without a tree or frame.

  3. 3

    A soft, or small, cushion.

  4. 4

    A cushion-like thickening of the skin on the underside of the toes of animals.

  5. 5

    The mostly hairless flesh located on the bottom of an animal's foot or paw.

  6. 6

    Any cushion-like part of the human body, especially the ends of the fingers.

  7. 7

    A stuffed guard or protection, especially one worn on the legs of horses to prevent bruising.

  8. 8

    A soft bag or cushion to relieve pressure, support a part, etc.

  9. 9

    UKA toad.

  10. 10

    AustraliaIrelandUKA path, particularly one unformed or unmaintained; a track made by animals.

    And when the map shows that the creek will no longer take him where he wants to go, then he looks for an animal pad and follows it, getting down on his belly and wriggling under thorny bush when he has to.

  11. 11

    An easy-paced horse; a padnag.

  12. 12

    UKobsoleteA robber who infests the road on foot; a highwayman or footpad.

  13. 13

    UKobsoleteA tramp or itinerant musician.

  14. 14

    UKA type of wickerwork basket, especially as used as a measure of fish or other goods.

  15. 15

    The sound of soft footsteps, or a similar noise made by an animal etc.

verb

  1. 1

    To stuff.

  2. 2

    To furnish with a pad or padding.

  3. 3

    To increase the size of, especially by adding undesirable filler.

    The author began to pad her succinct stories with trite descriptions to keep up with current market trends.

  4. 4

    To imbue uniformly with a mordant.

    to pad cloth

  5. 5

    To deliberately play the ball with the leg pad instead of the bat.

  6. 6

    To walk with soft steps.

    pad down the corridor

  7. 7

    To travel along (a road, path etc.).

  8. 8

    To travel on foot.

  9. 9

    To wear a path by walking.

  10. 10

    To walk softly, quietly or steadily, especially without shoes.

  11. 11

    obsoleteTo practise highway robbery.

interjection

  1. 1

    Indicating a soft flat sound, as of bare footsteps.

    I heard her soft footsteps, pad, pad along the corridor.

noun

as PAD
  1. 1

    Initialism of peripheral artery disease.

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

Pad in Spanish, French, German and Portuguese

LanguageWords
Frenchtampon, coussinet, coussinette (flattened mass of anything soft), rembourrer (to furnish with a pad or padding)
GermanUnterlage, Polster, Kissen, Matte, Polsterung (flattened mass of anything soft), Reitkissen (cushion used as saddle)
Spanishalmohadilla, pad (flattened mass of anything soft), acolchar, acolchonar (to furnish with a pad or padding), meter floro (figuratively: to fill or lengthen)
Portuguesebloco (block of paper)

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 pad come from?

1554, "bundle of straw to lie on". Unknown, and unclear all senses have common etymology. For sense "ends of a digit", cf. Low German or West Flemish pad (“sole of the foot”), perhaps ultimately from Proto-Indo-European *pent- (“to pass”), which would make it related to both path and find.

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

What to look up after pad