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PlainSpell

reed

/ɹiːd/noun, verb

reed is spelled R-E-E-D: 4 letters and one syllable. It appears 12 times per million words in written English, the 6,347th most frequent word form (wordfreq, 2021 data). People search “read vs reed” about 170 times a month (Google, United States). As a noun, reed means “Any of various types of tall stiff perennial grass-like plants growing together in groups near water” (English Wiktionary, September 2026). The plural of reed is reeds.

How many letters and syllables are in reed?

Letters4: R-E-E-D
Syllables1 (from its American pronunciation)
In writing12 times per million words; the 6,347th most frequent word form
Wrong spellings searchednone measured in search
Pairs people search
Sounds like
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); 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 reed?

Reed appears 12 times per million words in written English, the 6,347th 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 reed?

  • /ɹiːd/

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

Words people confuse with reed

Word pairs people search, with the monthly searches for “a vs b” (G: Google, B: Bing, United States).

read vs reed170 G

Sounds like: Reid, read (Wiktionary's homophone list; some hold only in some accents).

Sources: Google and Bing searches (September 2025 to August 2026, through DataForSEO); English Wiktionary (homophones, alternative spellings).

What rhymes with reed?

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

Spelled with the same letters in another order: deer, dere, rede, dree.

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 reed

  • reeds plural, present, singular, he/she/it
  • reeding participle, present
  • reeded participle, past
  • read

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

What does reed mean?

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

noun

  1. 1

    Any of various types of tall stiff perennial grass-like plants growing together in groups near water.

  2. 2

    The hollow stem of these plants.

  3. 3

    Part of an aerophone musical instrument, comprising a thin piece of wood or metal, which vibrates to produce sound when air passes through it.

  4. 4

    Short for reed instrument.

  5. 5

    A comb-like part of a beater for beating the weft when weaving.

    Coordinate term: sley

  6. 6

    A piece of whalebone or similar for stiffening the skirt or waist of a woman's dress.

  7. 7

    Reeding.

  8. 8

    A tube containing the train of powder for igniting the charge in blasting.

  9. 9

    ScotlandUKThe fourth stomach of a ruminant; rennet.

verb

  1. 1

    To thatch.

  2. 2

    To mill or mint with reeding.

  3. 3

    simple past and past participle of ree (a form of ree)

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

Reed in Spanish, French, German and Portuguese

LanguageWords
Frenchroseau (grass-like plant), canne, jonc (hollow stem), anche (music: part of mouthpiece), instrument à anche (music: type of wind instrument), peigne (weaving)
GermanSchilf, Ried, Rohr (grass-like plant), Schilfrohr (hollow stem), Rohrblatt, Blatt (music: part of mouthpiece)
Portuguesejunco, cana (grass-like plant), colmo (hollow stem), palheta (music: part of mouthpiece), pente (weaving)
Spanishjunco, carrizo, caña (grass-like plant)

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 reed come from?

From Middle English red, from Old English hrēod, from Proto-West Germanic *hreud (“reed”), of uncertain origin.

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

What to look up after reed