Bald

How to spell bald

4 letters · 1 syllable

How to pronounce bald

What does bald mean?

1. adjectiveHaving little or no hair on the head.
2. adjectivePlain, unconcealed, or stated without any softening detail.

Bald in a sentence

• His grandfather went completely bald by the age of forty.

• The report gave the bald figures with no explanation attached.

• The actor shaved his head and appeared bald for the role.

• She made a bald statement of the facts during the meeting.

Where does bald come from?

Language of origin: Celtic

Bald comes from the Middle English word balled, which described something rounded or, more specifically, a head or animal marked with a white patch. The most widely accepted theory traces the first part to a Celtic root bal, meaning 'white patch' or 'streak', the same kind of marking seen on the face of a horse. Over time the sense narrowed from 'having a white or bare patch' to the modern meaning of lacking hair, and from there it broadened figuratively to anything plain or unconcealed, as in a bald statement of fact. The bald eagle owes its name to this older sense too, since it is not hairless but simply has a strikingly white head. Because the origin lies in obscure Middle English and a debated Celtic root, scholars treat the precise source with some caution. For spelling, the trap is mainly the silent overlap with the unrelated 'bawled', the past tense of bawl, which sounds identical but is built quite differently.

How the word is built

• bald (single Middle English root, from balled meaning 'rounded' or 'marked with a white patch')