prayer beads
prayer beads noun: a string of beads used by members of various religions to count prayers, chants, or devotions.
Noun
prayer beads pl (normally plural, singular prayer bead)
- A string of beads used by members of various religions to count prayers, chants, or devotions.
- Suits didn't wear suits any more—they wore Tibetan prayer beads coiled around their wrists. But they slithered in a suitlike way.2020, Emily Segal, Mercury Retrograde, New York: Deluge Books, →ISBN
prayer beads meaning in Hindi, Tamil, Urdu and Bengali
prayer beads in Hindi
- string of beads — see also rosary
- माला mālā, तसबीह tasbīh, जपनी japnī
prayer beads in Tamil
- prayer beads
- செபமாலை cepamālai
prayer beads in Urdu
- string of beads — see also rosary
- تسبیح tasbīh
prayer beads in Bengali
- string of beads — see also rosary
- তসবীহ tosbiho
More languagesFewer languages
- prayer beads in Sanskrit
- माला mālā
- prayer beads in Tagalog
- rosaryo
- prayer beads in Arabic
- مِسْبَحَة misbaḥa, سُبْحَة subḥa
- prayer beads in Persian
- تسبیح tasbih, رزاری rozâri, بازیج bāzij
- prayer beads in Thai
- ปัด bpàt, ประคำ bprà-kam
- prayer beads in Vietnamese
- tràng hạt
Forms of prayer beads
| singular | prayer bead |
|---|
Origin of prayer beads
An interesting example of a compound that is diachronically pleonastic, although not synchronically so; the head by itself originally meant the relevant meaning (see bead), but as the head's meaning broadened by extension, the compound then became necessary to specify the relevant meaning by narrowing down.
Questions about prayer beads
- What does prayer beads mean?
- Prayer beads means a string of beads used by members of various religions to count prayers, chants, or devotions.
- What is prayer beads in Hindi?
- Prayer beads in Hindi is माला (mālā), तसबीह (tasbīh), जपनी (japnī). See Prayer beads meaning in Hindi.
- What part of speech is prayer beads?
- Prayer beads is a noun.
Words near prayer beads in the dictionary
Source and license
Adapted from Wiktionary: prayer beads (page history and authors); செபமாலை (Tamil) (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-prayer beads.wav.
Cite this entry: “prayer beads.” Word.ws, https://word.ws/prayer_beads. Based on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.