Bard

How to spell bard

4 letters · 1 syllable

How to pronounce bard

What does bard mean?

1. nounA poet, especially one who composes and recites verse celebrating people or events.

Bard in a sentence

• The ancient bard recited long poems from memory at the king's table.

• Students often call shakespeare the greatest bard of the language.

Where does bard come from?

Language of origin: Celtic

The word comes from the Celtic languages, surviving in Scottish Gaelic and Irish as 'bard' and in Welsh as 'bardd', all naming a professional poet who composed and recited verse in honour of chiefs and heroes. In the older Celtic societies a bard held a respected office, memorising genealogies and praise-poems and performing them aloud, often to the harp. English picked the word up in the late 1400s, at first chiefly through Scots usage, where it could even carry a slightly contemptuous tone for a wandering rhymer. Over time the sense softened and rose, so that by the Romantic era 'bard' was a dignified word for any lyric poet. The most famous fixed use is 'the Bard' for William Shakespeare, a label that helped cement the word in everyday English. Note that the spelling keeps the simple Celtic form and sounds exactly like 'barred', which is the trap to watch.

How the word is built

• bard (Celtic root meaning a poet or singer of verse); a single, unsuffixed root word

Words that sound like bard

They sound the same but mean different things, so the meaning decides which spelling to write.

• barred: Prevented or formally forbidden someone from entering a place or taking part in something.