bard
UK/bɑːd//bɑɹd/
bard noun: a professional poet and singer, like among the ancient Celts, whose occupation was to compose and sing verses in honor of the heroic achievements of princes and brave men.
Noun (1)
bard (plural bards)
- A professional poet and singer, like among the ancient Celts, whose occupation was to compose and sing verses in honor of the heroic achievements of princes and brave men.
- He is a Welsh bard, and a man full of animation, anecdote, and independence; […]1837, Richard Llwyd, The Poetical Works of Richard Llwyd, the Bard of Snowdon
- A WEAPON, THE WARRIOR CARRIES. A SAW, THE IDIOT CARRIES. AN INSTRUMENT, THE BARD CARRIES.2023, Rundisc, Chants of Sennaar, Focus Entertainment, via Nintendo Switch, level/area: Gardens
- A poet.
- Shakespeare is known as the bard of Avon.
- A class of character that typically focuses on charisma, magic and supporting other players; a fantasy fiction character inspired by this archetype.
- I saw a bard work a bit of magic once. He brought up a volunteer from the audience, insulted him in rather colorful fashion, and then made the man forget the insults—and then he did the same trick all over again, twice more.”2015 August 18, Tim Pratt, Pathfinder Tales: Reign of Stars, Macmillan, →ISBN, page 116
- "Having a bard would be even less helpful than having a second wizard," John interjects.2024 January 9, Kristy Boyce, Dungeons and Drama, Delacorte Press, →ISBN, page 66
Noun (2)
bard (plural bards)
- A piece of defensive (or, sometimes, ornamental) armor for a horse's neck, breast, and flanks; a barb. (Often in the plural.)
- Defensive armor formerly worn by a man at arms.
- A thin slice of fat bacon used to cover any meat or game.
- The exterior covering of the trunk and branches of a tree; the rind.
- Specifically, Peruvian bark.
Verb
bard (third-person singular simple present bards, present participle barding, simple past and past participle barded)
- To cover a horse in defensive armor.
- The defensive armor with which the horses of the ancient knights or men at arms were covered, or, to use the language of the time, barded, consisted of the following pieces made either of metal or jacked leather, the Chamfron, Chamfrein or Shaffron, the Criniere or Main Facre, the Poitrenal...1786, Francis Grose, A Treatise on Ancient Armour and Weapons, page 29
- To cover (meat or game) with a thin slice of fat bacon.
Proper noun capitalized: Bard
Bard
- A surname originating as an occupation.
- William Shakespeare.
- We have previously traced Shakespeare from his Birth-place to the Grammar School, and we shall now glance at his career as a lover, and in so doing propose a pleasant walk of a short mile to Shottery, a rural hamlet in the parish of Stratford, where Anne Hathaway resided, to whom the Bard became...1854, Edwin Lees, Stratford as connected with Shakespeare; and the bard's rural haunts, page 46
- It evidently needs no effort on the part of Mr. Booth to put himself en rapport with the ideal of the great Bard.1866, The Albion, quoted in, Arthur W. Bloom, Edwin Booth: A Biography and Performance History, McFarland →ISBN, page 207
Noun (3) capitalized: BARD
BARD (uncountable)
- Abbreviation of beyond a reasonable doubt.
bard meaning in Hindi, Marathi, Urdu and Telugu
bard in Hindi
- बार्ड
bard in Marathi
- बार्ड, बारड, बार्ड करण्यासाठी
bard in Urdu
- بارڈ
bard in Telugu
- professional poet and singer — see also minstrel
- వైతాళికుడు vaitāḷikuḍu
More languagesFewer languages
- bard in Malayalam
- ബാർഡ്, ബാർഡ് ചെയ്യാൻ
- bard in Kannada
- ಬಾರ್ಡ್
- bard in Odia
- ବାର୍ଡ଼
- bard in Nepali
- बार्ड, बार्ड गर्न
- bard in Arabic
- بَردَعَه
- bard in Persian
- سراینده sorâyande
Examples of bard in a sentence
- Both of my good Durges were College of Swords bards because I liked this class so much.
- By the bard Philammon, she gave birth to an even greater musician, her son Thamyris.
- A geas is a restriction or compulsion laid upon a person by a druid or a bard.
Forms of bard
| Noun | |
|---|---|
| plural | bards |
| Verb | |
| third-person singular present | bards |
| present participle | barding |
| past participle | barded |
| past | barded |
Origin of bard
First use appears c. 1449. From Scottish Gaelic bàrd, from Old Irish bard, from Proto-Celtic *bardos (“bard, poet”), from Proto-Indo-European *gʷerH- (“praise”), and reinforced by Latin bardus, borrowed from Celtic. Cognate with Latin grātus (“grateful, pleasant, delightful”), Sanskrit गृणाति (gṛṇāti, “calls, praises”), Old Church Slavonic жрьти (žrĭti, “to sacrifice”).
From French barde. English since the late 15th century.
Words formed from bard
Words that rhyme with bard
Questions about bard
- What does bard mean?
- Bard means a professional poet and singer, like among the ancient Celts, whose occupation was to compose and sing verses in honor of the heroic achievements of princes and brave men.
- What is bard in Hindi?
- Bard in Hindi is बार्ड. See Bard meaning in Hindi.
- What part of speech is bard?
- Bard can be a noun, a verb or a proper noun.
- How do you pronounce bard?
- Bard is pronounced /bɑːd/ (UK).
- What is the plural of bard?
- The plural of bard is bards.
Words near bard in the dictionary
Source and license
Adapted from Wiktionary: bard (page history and authors); Bard (page history and authors); BARD (page history and authors); bard (Hindi, IndicTrans2 machine translation) (model and license); bard (Marathi, IndicTrans2 machine translation) (model and license); bard (Urdu, IndicTrans2 machine translation) (model and license); bard (Malayalam, IndicTrans2 machine translation) (model and license); bard (Kannada, IndicTrans2 machine translation) (model and license); bard (Odia, IndicTrans2 machine translation) (model and license); bard (Nepali, IndicTrans2 machine translation) (model and license). Text available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 license. Word.ws reformatted the entry and added links. Wiktionary data of 2026-09-02.
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Pronunciation audio from Wikimedia Commons, each file under its own free license: en-us-bard.ogg.
Cite this entry: “bard.” Word.ws, https://word.ws/bard. Based on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.