Word.ws English Dictionary

rood

/ɹuːd/

rood noun: a crucifix, cross, especially in a church.

Noun

rood (plural roods)

  1. (archaic) A crucifix, cross, especially in a church.
    • The Citizens in their rage, imagining that euery poſt in the Churche had bin one of yᵉ Souldyers, ſhot habbe or nabbe at randon^([sic – meaning random]) uppe to the Roode lofte, and to the Chancell, leauing ſome of theyr arrowes ſticking in the Images.1577, Raphaell Holinshed; Richarde Stanyhurst [i.e., Richard Stanihurst], “[The Historie of Irelande […].] The Thirde Booke of the Historie of Ireland, Comprising the Raigne of Henry the Eyght: ….”...
    • Have you forgot me? No, by the rood, not so.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...
  2. A measure of land area, equal to a quarter of an acre.
    • Next a marsh, it would seem, and now mere earth / Desperate and done with; (so a fool finds mirth, / Makes a thing and then mars it, till his mood / Changes and off he goes!) within a rood— / Bog, clay and rubble, sand and stark black dearth.1855, Robert Browning, “‘Childe Roland to the Dark Tower Came.’”, in Men and Women […], volume I, London: Chapman and Hall, […], →OCLC, stanza XXV
    • […] a bumptious fool whose god was property, not property in vast estates such as a true man might worship, but in paltry roods.1938, Xavier Herbert, chapter V, in Capricornia, page 58
    Synonyms:
    farthingdale, day's work, daywork, farthing, ferling, farthingdeal, farthingdole, farundel, yard, rod
  3. (historical, Chester) An area of sixty-four square yards.
  4. (UK, dialectal, obsolete) A measure of five and a half yards in length.
    • Thus Satan […] his other parts besides / Prone on the flood, extended long and large, / Lay floating many a rood […]1667, John Milton, “Book I”, in Paradise Lost. […], London: […] [Samuel Simmons], and are to be sold by Peter Parker […]; [a]nd by Robert Boulter […]; [a]nd Matthias Walker, […], →OCLC; republished...
  5. (archaic) The human face.
    • Nou goth sonne under wode,—
      Me reweth, Marie, thi faire Rode.
      Nou goth sonne under tre,—13th century, Edmund of Abingdon (or Anonymous); reproduced in Carleton Fairchild Brown (ed.), English Lyrics of the XIIIth Century (1932), p. 1, from Bodl. MS. Arch. Selden 74, f.55v

Proper noun capitalized: Rood

Rood (plural Roods)

  1. A surname.

rood meaning in Tamil, Urdu and Vietnamese

rood in Tamil

உரூட்டு

rood in Urdu

صلیب

rood in Vietnamese

crucifix
Thánh Giá

Examples of rood in a sentence

  • By holy rood, a royal beard! / How say you? we have slept, my lords. / My beard has grown into my lap.1842, Alfred Tennyson, “The Day-Dream. The Revival.”, in Poems. […], volume II, London: Edward Moxon, […], →OCLC, page 157:
  • Perhaps, however, he could ensure against being completely alone by cultivating the few roods of garden wished upon him.1956, Anthony Burgess, Time for a Tiger (The Malayan Trilogy), published 1972, page 195:

Synonyms of rood

2 more synonymsFewer synonyms

All synonyms of rood

Forms of rood

Noun
pluralroods
Proper noun
pluralRoods

Plural of rood: roods

Origin of rood

From Middle English rode, rood (“cross”), from Old English rōd (“cross”), from Proto-Germanic *rōdō, *rōdǭ (“rod, pole”), from Proto-Indo-European *rōt-, *reh₁t- (“bar, beam, stem”). Cognate with German Rute (“rod, cane, pole”), Norwegian roda (“rod”). Largely displaced by cross. More at rod.

Words formed from rood

Phrases with rood

Words that rhyme with rood

48 more rhymesFewer rhymes

Questions about rood

What does rood mean?
Rood means a crucifix, cross, especially in a church.
What is rood in Tamil?
Rood in Tamil is உரூட்டு. See Rood meaning in Tamil.
How do you use rood in a sentence?
By holy rood, a royal beard! / How say you? we have slept, my lords. / My beard has grown into my lap.
What part of speech is rood?
Rood can be a noun or a proper noun.
How do you pronounce rood?
Rood is pronounced /ɹuːd/.
What is the plural of rood?
The plural of rood is roods.

Words near rood in the dictionary

  1. roo bar
  2. roo bars
  3. rooburger
  4. rooburgers
  5. Roocooyen
  6. rood
  7. rood beam
  8. rood beams
  9. Rood Day
  10. Rood End
  11. rood geese

Source and license

Adapted from Wiktionary: rood (page history and authors); Rood (page history and authors); rood (Tamil Wiktionary) (page history and authors); rood (Urdu Wiktionary) (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-rood.wav.

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