Beaded

How to spell beaded

6 letters · 2 syllables

How to pronounce beaded

Say the part in capitals loudest.

What does beaded mean?

1. adjectiveDecorated with or made up of small beads.
2. verbFormed into small rounded drops, as moisture collecting on a surface.

Beaded in a sentence

• adjective

  The beaded curtain rattled softly whenever someone walked through the doorway.

• verb

  Sweat beaded on his forehead as he carried the heavy boxes up the stairs.

• adjective

  She fastened the delicate beaded necklace before leaving for the reception.

• verb

  Condensation beaded on the cold glass of lemonade within minutes.

Where does beaded come from?

Language of origin: Germanic

This word grows from the noun 'bead', which began life as the Old English 'gebed', meaning a prayer. In the Middle Ages people counted their prayers on a string of small perforated balls, a rosary, and over time the name for the prayer slid across to the little ball that marked it; to 'tell one's beads' originally meant to count one's prayers. By the late Middle Ages 'bead' had fully shifted to mean the decorative ball itself, and the surprising original sense survives faintly in the verb 'to bid' (as in 'bid one's prayers'). The adjective and verb form 'beaded', meaning either decorated with beads or gathered into bead-like droplets, was built simply by adding the regular '-ed' ending. The watery sense, as when moisture collects in tiny rounded drops, draws directly on the small, round shape of a bead.

How the word is built

• bead (small pierced ball)
• -ed (past tense / adjectival suffix)