Word.ws English Dictionary

rode

/ɹəʊd//ɹoʊd/

rode is the simple past of ride.

rode is the past participle of ride.

rode is the obsolete form of road.

Meaning of ride

Verb

ride (third-person singular simple present rides, present participle riding, simple past rode or (obsolete) rade or (obsolete) rid, past participle ridden or (now colloquial and nonstandard) rode)

  1. (ambitransitive) To transport oneself by sitting on and directing a horse, later also a bicycle etc.
    • I ride to work every day and park the bike outside the office.
  2. (ambitransitive) To be transported in a vehicle; to travel as a passenger.
    • Now, in calm weather, to swim in the open ocean is as easy to the practised swimmer as to ride in a spring-carriage ashore.1851 November 14, Herman Melville, Moby-Dick; or, The Whale, 1st American edition, New York, N.Y.: Harper & Brothers; London: Richard Bentley, →OCLC
  3. (South Africa, US, informal, transitive) To transport (someone) in a vehicle.
    • The cab rode him downtown.
  4. (intransitive) Of a ship: to sail, to float on the water.
    • Why name I ev'ry Place where Youths abound? / 'Tis Loſs of Time; and a too fruitful Ground. / The Bajan Baths, where Ships at Anchor ride, / And wholeſome Streams from Sulphur Fountains glide: […]a. 1701, [John] Dryden, “Book I”, in Ovid, Ovid’s Art of Love. […], London: […] Jacob Tonson […], published 1709, →OCLC, pages 19–20
  5. (intransitive, transitive) To be carried or supported by something lightly and quickly; to travel in such a way, as though on horseback.
    • The witch cackled and rode away on her broomstick.
  6. (transitive) To traverse by riding.
    • Early women tobogganists rode the course in the requisite attire of their day: skirts. In spite of this hindrance, some women riders turned in very respectable performances.1999, David Levinson, Karen Christensen, Encyclopedia of World Sport: From Ancient Times to the Present

See all 32 meanings of ride

Meaning of road

Noun

road (plural roads)

  1. A way used for travelling between places, originally one wide enough to allow foot passengers and horses to travel, now (US) usually one surfaced with asphalt or concrete and designed to accommodate many vehicles travelling in both directions. In the UK both senses are heard: a country road is the same as a country lane.
    • In the lightness of my heart I sang catches of songs as my horse gayly bore me along the well-remembered road.1852, Mrs M.A. Thompson, “The Tutor's Daughter”, in Graham's American Monthly Magazine of Literature, Art, and Fashion, page 266
  2. (uncountable) Roads in general as a means of travel, especially by motor vehicle.
    • We travelled to the seaside by road.
  3. (dated) A physical way or route.
    • He stirred up his hair with his sprightliest expression, glanced at the little figure again, said ‘Good evening, ma ‘am; don’t come down, Mrs Affery, I know the road to the door,’ and steamed out.1855 December – 1857 June, Charles Dickens, Little Dorrit, London: Bradbury and Evans, […], published 1857, →OCLC
  4. (figuratively) A path chosen, as in life or career.
    • the road to happiness; the road to success.
  5. An underground tunnel in a mine.
  6. (US, archaic) A railroad.
    • [in 1846 or 1847, Davis K. Carter said,] ["]I have come to deal in practical matters, and to serve notice on you, gentlemen, that we out west, comprising the backbone, not only of Ohio but of the western continent, mean business. A road is to be built from this city [Pittsburgh], through Massillon...1926 [1847], Bessie V. R. Skinner, quoting Davis K. Carter, Massillon, Once Upon a Time, Independent Publishing Company, page 27

See all 14 meanings of road

Verb

rode (third-person singular simple present rodes, present participle roding, simple past and past participle roded)

  1. Of a male woodcock, to fly back and forth over the edge of a woodland while calling; to perform its, typically crepuscular, mating flight.
    • "When the sun rises we shall have some splendid play. Only hear the woodcock, how he is roading; he expects fine weather."1886, Peter Christen Asbjø￵rnsen, translated by H.L. Brækstad, Folk and Fairy Tales, page 85

Noun

rode (plural rodes)

  1. The line from a vessel to its anchor.
    Synonyms:
    warp

Proper noun capitalized: Rode

Rode

  1. A village and civil parish in Somerset, England, previously in Mendip district (OS grid ref ST8053).
  2. A habitational name for a person who either lived near a woodland clearing, or came from a place named Rode.

Synonyms of rode

Forms of rode

Verb
third-person singular presentrodes
present participleroding
past participleroded
pastroded
Noun
pluralrodes

Origin of rode

In place names, from Old English *rodu (“clearing”).

Phrases with rode

55 more phrasesFewer phrases

Words that rhyme with rode

48 more rhymesFewer rhymes

Questions about rode

What does rode mean?
Rode means of a male woodcock, to fly back and forth over the edge of a woodland while calling; to perform its, typically crepuscular, mating flight.
What is rode the simple past of?
Rode is the simple past of ride.
What part of speech is rode?
Rode can be a verb, a noun or a proper noun.
How do you pronounce rode?
Rode is pronounced /ɹəʊd/ (UK).
What is the past tense of rode?
The past tense of rode is roded.

Words near rode in the dictionary

  1. rodding
  2. roddings
  3. Rodds
  4. roddy
  5. Roddys
  6. rode
  7. rode a horse foaled by an acorn
  8. rode a horse foaled of an acorn
  9. rode a rantipole
  10. rode along
  11. rode bitch

Source and license

Adapted from Wiktionary: rode (page history and authors); Rode (page history and authors); ride (page history and authors); road (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)-Pvanp7-rode.wav, en-us-rode.ogg.

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