Skip to main content
PlainSpell

prod

/pɹɑd/verb, noun

prod is spelled P-R-O-D: 4 letters and one syllable. It appears 1.8 times per million words in written English, the 20,906th most frequent word form (wordfreq, 2021 data). As a verb, prod means “To poke, to push, to touch” (English Wiktionary, September 2026).

How many letters and syllables are in prod?

Letters4: P-R-O-D
Syllables1 (from its American pronunciation)
In writing1.8 times per million words; the 20,906th 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 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 prod?

Prod appears 1.8 times per million words in written English, the 20,906th 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 prod?

  • UK /pɹɒd/
  • UK /pɹɔd/
  • US /pɹɑd/

Prod 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-prod.wav, En-au-Prod.ogg, Wikimedia Commons (author and licence on each file's page).

What rhymes with prod?

The 12 most written words on PlainSpell end in the same sounds as prod from its last stressed vowel (/ɑd/):

Spelled with the same letters in another order: drop, dorp.

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 prod

  • prods present, singular, he/she/it, plural
  • prodding participle, present
  • prodded participle, past

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

What does prod mean?

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

verb

  1. 1

    To poke, to push, to touch.

  2. 2

    informalTo encourage, to prompt.

  3. 3

    To prick with a goad.

noun

  1. 1

    A device (now often electrical) used to goad livestock into moving.

  2. 2

    A prick or stab with such a pointed instrument.

  3. 3

    A poke.

    "It's your turn," she reminded me, giving me a prod on the shoulder.

  4. 4

    A light kind of crossbow; a prodd.

  5. 5

    slangClipping of production (“the live environment”).

    We've hit ten million users in prod today.

  6. 6

    slangA production; a created work.

    Check our BBS for the latest prods.

  7. 7

    IrelandUKderogatoryslangAlternative letter-case form of Prod (“protestant”).

noun

as Prod
  1. 1

    IrelandUKderogatoryslangA Protestant, (as termed by Roman Catholics), that is in the context of their religious beliefs, or those who have been born in the Protestant tradition, or sometimes those implied to be Protestant by their political ideology of Irish unionism or Ulster loyalism.

    "I don't want my daughter marrying a dirty Prod," he said.

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

Prod in Spanish, French, German and Portuguese

LanguageWords
Frenchpousser, tâter (to poke), encourager (to encourage)
Germanstoßen, anstupsen (to poke), anspornen, ermutigen (to encourage), anstacheln, antreiben (to prick with a goad)
Portuguesecutucar (to poke), aguilhoar (to encourage)
Spanishhincar (to poke), aguijar, aguizgar, aguzar, puyar (to encourage), aguijada (device used to goad livestock into moving)

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 prod come from?

Alteration of earlier brod (perhaps through influence of poke; compare prog), from Middle English brodden (“to goad, incite, urge; to sprout”), from brod (“goad, nail; shoot, sprout”), from Old Norse broddr (“shaft, spike, thorn”), from Proto-Germanic *bruzdaz. Cognate with Icelandic broddur, Danish brod. Doublet of brad. Or, from or influenced by sound symbolism.

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

What to look up after prod