Creed

How to spell creed

5 letters · 1 syllable

How to pronounce creed

What does creed mean?

1. nounA set of beliefs or principles that guide a person's actions or a group's identity.
2. nounA formal statement of religious faith recited during worship.

Creed in a sentence

• The company welcomes staff of every race and creed.

• The congregation rose to recite the creed together.

• Hard work and honesty formed the core of her personal creed.

• The priest led the service before the creed was spoken.

Where does creed come from?

Language of origin: Latin

This word traces back to the Latin verb credo, meaning literally 'I believe' or 'I trust', which is the opening word of the great Christian statements of faith recited in church. Old English took the term in as creda, and it referred from the very beginning to a formal summary of religious belief, especially the Apostles' Creed and the Nicene Creed that congregations spoke aloud. Over the centuries the meaning broadened beyond religion to cover any firmly held set of principles or guiding convictions, so a person can speak of a political or personal creed. The same Latin credo gives English a whole family of relatives, including 'credit', 'credible', 'credentials', and 'incredible', all carrying the underlying idea of trust and belief. The spelling stays simple and phonetic, with the long 'ee' sound written as the double e, which is why it rarely trips writers up.

How the word is built

• creed (from Latin credo 'I believe'); a single root word with no prefix or suffix