Word.ws English Dictionary

trod

/tɹɒd/

More pronunciations (1)Fewer pronunciations

Australia/tɹɔd/

trod is the simple past of tread.

Meaning of tread

Verb

tread (third-person singular simple present treads, present participle treading, simple past trod or tread or treaded, past participle trodden or trod or tread or treaded)

  1. (intransitive) To step or walk (on or across something); to trample.
    • He trod back and forth wearily.
  2. (transitive) To step or walk upon.
    • Actors tread the boards.
  3. (figuratively) To proceed, to behave (in a certain manner).
    • to tread lightly, to tread gently
  4. To beat or press with the feet.
    • to tread a path; to tread land when too light; a well-trodden path
  5. To work a lever, treadle, etc., with the foot or the feet.
    • Round about them was a circle of girls and wives of the neighbouring tenants; "they trod the spinning-wheels with diligent feet, or were using the scraping carding-combs," as an author has it.1886, Peter Christen Asbjø￵rnsen, translated by H.L. Brækstad, Folk and Fairy Tales, page 251
  6. To go through or accomplish by walking, dancing, etc.
    • I am resolved to forsake Malta, tread a pilgrimage to fair Jerusalem.1616–1619 (first performance), John Fletcher, Philip Massinger, Nathan Field, “The Knight of Malta”, in Comedies and Tragedies […], London: […] Humphrey Robinson, […], and for Humphrey Moseley […]...

See all 21 meanings of tread

Verb

trod (third-person singular simple present trods, present participle trodding, simple past and past participle trodded)

  1. To walk heavily or laboriously; plod; tread
    • Sir ; to me the noble lord seems to trod close in the foot-steps of his fellow-labourers in the ministerial vineyard, and u crow over us with the same reason1813, The Parliamentary history of England from the earliest period to the year 1803
    • It renders the paths, and the banks of the bayous in that region almost impassable in autumn, until the cattle have trodded it down.1833, Timothy Flint, The history and geography of the Mississippi Valley

Noun

trod (plural trods)

  1. A track or pathway.
    • In many ways this process replicates the stone trods or pannierways which date from the mediaeval period and are a feature of many parts of the North York Moors.2019, Alan Staniforth, Cleveland Way, page 81
    Synonyms:
    trailway

Synonyms of trod

Forms of trod

Verb
third-person singular presenttrods
present participletrodding
past participletrodded
pasttrodded
Noun
pluraltrods

Origin of trod

See tread.

From Middle English trod, past participle of treden; see tread. Compare Norwegian trod (“a path”).

From Old English trodu (“track, trace”), from the same source as tread.

Words formed from trod

Phrases with trod

6 more phrasesFewer phrases

Words that rhyme with trod

26 more rhymesFewer rhymes

Questions about trod

What does trod mean?
Trod means to walk heavily or laboriously; plod; tread.
What is trod the simple past of?
Trod is the simple past of tread.
What part of speech is trod?
Trod can be a verb or a noun.
How do you pronounce trod?
Trod is pronounced /tɹɒd/ (UK).
What is the past tense of trod?
The past tense of trod is trodded.

Words near trod in the dictionary

  1. troco
  2. trocophore
  3. troctolite
  4. troctolites
  5. troctolitic
  6. trod
  7. trod a measure
  8. trod carefully
  9. trod down
  10. trod in someone's footsteps
  11. trod in someone's steps

Source and license

Adapted from Wiktionary: trod (page history and authors); tread (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.

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Pronunciation audio from Wikimedia Commons, each file under its own free license: LL-Q1860 (eng)-Vealhurl-trod.wav, LL-Q1860 (eng)-Semperosculto-trod.wav.

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