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Glite Dictionary
beads

beads

1 1.0
Small round pieces with a hole that you string to make jewelry
  • noun
  • /biːdz/
translation icon : cuentas
  • The children enjoyed crafting bracelets with shiny plastic beads.
  • rosary beads

Still, men were throwing beads and yelling show us your chin.

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Examples

  • Oh, Linda, you look so beautiful with your yellow beads and your yellow shirt.

  • It's easy to get plastic beads of very uniform dimension.

  • We still had our beads and we still had our youth.

    Vogue

  • So yeah, I believe you just throw the the beads or you wear them.

  • Yes, people talk about trade beads and they talk about stuff like that.

  • If you take a closer look at the beads, it looks so, so cheap.

  • A necklace made of beads of clear cold water.

  • And it's like fully beaded like this is just all beads all over this necklace.

  • They look like metal, like metal beads as opposed to pearls, right?

  • I was sat with my rosary counting my beads saying my hail merit.

Synonyms

rosary
vsbeads
43 7.0

A string of beads used to count prayers or the prayers said with them

is a nonreligious decorative object without a ritual counting function
string
vsbeads
37 1.8

A line of beads or pearls worn around the neck

specifies that those items are usually small round decorative pieces
strand
vsbeads
7 3.5

A string of beads or pearls worn around the neck

is the broader, everyday term for any small decorative pieces on a thread
prayer beads
vsbeads
3 3.5

A string of small round objects that people use to count religious words

are mainly decorative or worn as jewellery rather than used for counting prayers
string of beads
vsbeads
1 2.7

A row of beads threaded together and worn as jewelry

is the general term for that threaded ornament often worn for decoration

Compounds

prayer beads
3 3.5

A string of small round objects that people use to count religious words

string of beads
1 2.7

A row of beads threaded together and worn as jewelry

How Many

rosary
43 7.0
beads
1 1.0
bead
14 4.1

Surface Forms

bead singular
beads plural

Morphology

beads = bead (transparent) = bead + s

A regular plural formed from the noun 'bead'; the plural meaning is directly predictable from the singular.

Etymology

The word beads comes from an old English word bede meaning 'prayer', because people once used small objects to count their prayers. So a bead became the small round piece on a string, and today beads means any little decorations or jewellery pieces threaded together.