Word.ws English Dictionary

dreads

/dɹɛdz/

dreads noun: dreadlocks. Also the third-person singular simple present indicative of dread.

Noun (1)

dreads pl (plural only)

  1. (colloquial, plural, plural-only) dreadlocks
    Synonyms:
    dreadlocks, locks

Noun (2)

dreads (plural dreads)

  1. A Rastafarian person.

Also used as

dreads is also the third-person singular simple present indicative of dread.

Synonyms of dreads

Forms of dreads

alternative formdreds
pluraldreads

Origin of dreads

Abbreviation of dreadlocks. Sense of “Rastafarian person” by synecdoche.

See the etymology of the corresponding lemma form.

Words formed from dreads

Phrases with dreads

Words that rhyme with dreads

Questions about dreads

What does dreads mean?
Dreads means dreadlocks.
What part of speech is dreads?
Dreads is a noun.
How do you pronounce dreads?
Dreads is pronounced /dɹɛdz/.
What is the plural of dreads?
The plural of dreads is dreads.

Words near dreads in the dictionary

  1. dreadnaught
  2. dreadnaughts
  3. dreadness
  4. dreadnought
  5. dreadnoughts
  6. dreads
  7. dreadsome
  8. dreadtalk
  9. dreadworthy
  10. dready
  11. dream

Source and license

Adapted from Wiktionary: dreads (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)-Persent101-dreads.wav.

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