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The beads you might wear around your neck once represented prayers. The Middle English word bede at first meant “a prayer.” People then, as now, often kept track of the number and order of a series of prayers with the help of a string of little balls. Because each of these balls stands for a prayer, the word bede came to be used for the balls themselves. Today this same word, now spelled bead, is used to refer to any small piece of material with a hole in it for threading on a string or wire.
Examples of bead in a Sentence
Mario Rodriguez, Miami Herald, 23 Oct. 2025
The architect tapped France’s top craftspeople to work on every detail of the train’s interior, from the clocks developed with Cartier to the wooden panels embroidered with Japanese beads.
—Joelle Diderich, Footwear News, 20 Oct. 2025
Cortne Bonilla, Vogue, 3 Oct. 2025
The act of threading beads onto string or elastic can help improve fine motor skills, too.
—Bestreviews, Mercury News, 30 Sep. 2025
See All Example Sentences for bead
Cite this Entry
“Bead.” Merriam-Webster.com Dictionary, Merriam-Webster, https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/bead. Accessed 31 Oct. 2025.
Copy CitationKids Definition
bead
1 of 2 nounbead
2 of 2 verbNoun
Middle English bede "prayer, rosary bead," from Old English bed "prayer"
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