rede
/ɹiːd/
rede noun: help, advice, counsel.
Noun
rede (uncountable)
- Help, advice, counsel.
- Ophelia:
Do not, as some ungracious pastors do,
Show me the steep and thorny way to heaven,
Whiles, like a puffed and reckless libertine,
Himself the primrose path of dalliance treads,
And recks not his own rede.c. 1599–1602 (date written), William Shakespeare, “The Tragedie of Hamlet, Prince of Denmarke”, in Mr. William Shakespeares Comedies, Histories, & Tragedies […] (First Folio), London: […] Isaac... - When the Bull heard these words he knew the Ass to be his friend and thanked him, saying, "Right is thy rede"1885, Richard F[rancis] Burton, transl. and editor, A Plain and Literal Translation of the Arabian Nights’ Entertainments, now Entituled The Book of the Thousand Nights and a Night […], Shammar...
- Ophelia:
- Decision, a plan.
Verb
rede (third-person singular simple present redes, present participle reding, simple past and past participle red or redd)
- To govern, protect.
- To discuss, deliberate.
- To advise.
- The meane whyle his squyer founde wryten vpon the crosse that Bagdemagus shold neuer retorne vnto the Courte ageyne / tyll he had wonne a knyȝtes body of the round table body for body / lo syr said his squyer / here I fynde wrytyng of yow / therfor I rede yow retorne ageyne to the Courte / that...1485, Sir Thomas Malory, chapter V, in Le Morte Darthur, book IV
- But let me rede you, marry not.1883, Robert Louis Stevenson, “The Dead Spy”, in The Black Arrow
- To interpret (a riddle or dream); explain.
- The secret of Man's Being is still like the Sphinx's secret: a riddle that he cannot rede.1836, Thomas Carlyle, Sartor Resartus
Proper noun capitalized: Rede
Rede
- A river in Northumberland, England, which joins the River North Tyne at Redesmouth.
Forms of rede
| Noun | |
|---|---|
| alternative form | read |
| Verb | |
| third-person singular present | redes |
| present participle | reding |
| past participle | red |
| past | red |
| past participle | redd |
| past | redd |
Origin of rede
From Middle English red, rede, from Old English rǣd, from Proto-West Germanic *rād, from Proto-Germanic *rēdaz. Cognate with Danish råd, Dutch raad, German Rat, Swedish råd, Norwegian Bokmål råd. Indo-European cognates include Old Irish rádaid (“to speak, say, tell”). Doublet of rada.
From Middle English reden, ræden, from Old English rǣdan (“to counsel, advise; plot, design; rule, govern, guide; determine, decide, decree; read, explain”), from Proto-West Germanic *rādan, from Proto-Germanic *rēdaną. Cognate with German raten, Low German raden, Dutch raden. More at read.
Probably from Old English hrēod (“reed”).
Words formed from rede
Words that rhyme with rede
48 more rhymesFewer rhymes
- weed
- proceed
- stampede
- concede
- accede
- deed
- exceed
- need
- bede
- knead
- mislead
- plead
- swede
- cede
- creed
- godspeed
- heed
- intercede
- keyed
- leed
- meed
- precede
- recede
- tumbleweed
- a friend in need is a friend indeed
- beread
- greed
- he'd
- indeed
- interbreed
- kneed
- mead
- secede
- she'd
- sneed
- steed
- supersede
- underfeed
- we'd
- ye'd
- agreed
- anasheed
- aniseed
- atheed
- caid
- co-feed
- cofeed
- counterplead
Questions about rede
- What does rede mean?
- Rede means help, advice, counsel.
- What part of speech is rede?
- Rede can be a noun, a verb or a proper noun.
- How do you pronounce rede?
- Rede is pronounced /ɹiːd/.
Words near rede in the dictionary
Source and license
Adapted from Wiktionary: rede (page history and authors); Rede (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-rede.wav.
Cite this entry: “rede.” Word.ws, https://word.ws/rede. Based on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.