Word.ws English Dictionary

Bedford

Syllables: Bed·ford/ˈbɛdfə(ɹ)d/

Bedford proper noun: a market town, the county town of Bedfordshire, England. Also the ellipsis of Bedford Township.

bedford: a market town, the county town of Bedfordshire, England
Image: Murgatroyd49, CC BY-SA 4.0, via Wikimedia Commons

Proper noun

Bedford (countable and uncountable, plural Bedfords)

  1. A market town, the county town of Bedfordshire, England.
  2. A local government district with borough status in Bedfordshire, England.
  3. A suburb of Leigh, Wigan borough, Greater Manchester, England (OS grid ref SJ6799).
  4. A city, the county seat of Lawrence County, Indiana.
  5. A small city, the county seat of Taylor County, Iowa.
  6. A small city, the county seat of Trimble County, Kentucky.
  7. A town in Middlesex County, Massachusetts.
  8. An unincorporated community in Livingston County, Missouri.
  9. A town in Hillsborough County, New Hampshire.
  10. A town in Westchester County, New York.
  11. A city in Cuyahoga County, Ohio.
  12. A borough, the county seat of Bedford County, Pennsylvania.
Show 12 more meaningsShow fewer meanings
  1. An unincorporated community in Bedford County, Tennessee.
  2. A city in Tarrant County, Texas.
  3. A town, the county seat of Bedford County, Virginia.
  4. A census-designated place in Lincoln County, Wyoming.
  5. A number of townships in the United States, listed under Bedford Township.
  6. A district of Halifax, Nova Scotia.
  7. A civil parish of Queens County, Prince Edward Island.
  8. A city and township in Brome-Missisquoi Regional County Municipality, Quebec.
  9. A town in the Eastern Cape province, South Africa.
  10. A suburb of Perth in the City of Bayswater, Western Australia, Australia; named after Frederick Bedford.
  11. An English dukedom.
  12. A surname.

Noun

Bedford (plural Bedfords)

  1. A truck, van, and bus and coach chassis formerly manufactured by the Bedford company, a subsidiary company of Vauxhall Motors.
    • New Zealand Railways Road Services used to operate a large fleet of Bedfords.

Also used as

Bedford is also the ellipsis of Bedford Township.

Bedford is also the ellipsis of Bedford County.

Forms of Bedford

Proper noun
pluralBedfords
Noun
pluralBedfords

Origin of Bedford

From Middle English Bedforde, Bedeford, from Old English Bedaford, Bedanford, equivalent to Bede's + ford. The civil parish is named after John Russell, 4th Duke of Bedford (1710 - 1771). Coined by British-Dutch surveyor Samuel Holland.

Words formed from Bedford

Phrases with Bedford

Questions about Bedford

What does Bedford mean?
Bedford means a market town, the county town of Bedfordshire, England.
What part of speech is Bedford?
Bedford can be a proper noun or a noun.
How do you pronounce Bedford?
Bedford is pronounced /ˈbɛdfə(ɹ)d/ (UK).

Words near Bedford in the dictionary

  1. bedfellow
  2. bedfellows
  3. bedfellowship
  4. bedfellowships
  5. Bedfont
  6. Bedford
  7. Bedford cord
  8. Bedford cords
  9. Bedford County
  10. Bedford Hills
  11. Bedford willow

Source and license

Adapted from Wiktionary: Bedford (page history and authors). 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.

Last updated:

Pronunciation audio from Wikimedia Commons, each file under its own free license: LL-Q1860 (eng)-Vealhurl-Bedford.wav.

Cite this entry: “Bedford.” Word.ws, https://word.ws/bedford. Based on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.