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bede.

Prayer, request, supplication

4 characters1 syllables approx.English language

Meaning & usage

noun/biːd/UK
  1. Prayer, request, supplication

    obsolete
  2. Rosary.

    obsolete
Where this word comes from

From Middle English bēde (“prayer, request, supplication, order, command, rosary, bead”), from Old English ġebed (“prayer, petition, supplication, religious service, an ordinance”), from Proto-West Germanic *bed, from Proto-Germanic *bedą (“prayer, entreaty”). Cognate with Dutch gebed and bede, German Gebet.

verb/biːd/UK
  1. pray, offer, proffer

  2. request, demand, order, command, forbid

  3. proclaim, declare

  4. present, counsel, advise, rede, exhort

Where this word comes from

From Middle English bēden (“to offer”), from Old English bēodan, from Proto-West Germanic *beudan, from Proto-Germanic *beudaną, from Proto-Indo-European *bʰewdʰ-. Germanic cognates include Old Frisian biada, Old Saxon biodan (Low German bieden, beden), Dutch bieden, Old High German biotan (German bieten), Old Norse bjóða (Swedish bjuda (“command, show”)), Gothic 𐌰𐌽𐌰𐌱𐌹𐌿𐌳𐌰𐌽 (anabiudan). The Indo-European root is also the source of Ancient Greek πεύθομαι (peúthomai, “ask for”), Sanskrit बोधयति (bodhayati, “wake”), Old Church Slavonic бъдѣти (bŭděti) (Russian будить (buditʹ, “wake”)), Lithuanian budeti (“awake”). See also bid.

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Definitions, grammatical labels, IPA, etymology and examples: Wiktionary contributors, extracted by Kaikki / Wiktextract. Adapted under CC BY-SA 4.0. Selected fields and authored examples are shown; third-party quotations and audio are omitted. See contributor history.

Last enriched 2026-09-10. Definitions are in English. Romanizations are shown when supplied by the source; syllable estimates are omitted for unsupported scripts.