use-icon

HOW TO USE THE DICTIONARY

To look up an entry in The American Heritage Dictionary of the English Language, use the search window above. For best results, after typing in the word, click on the “Search” button instead of using the “enter” key.

Some compound words (like bus rapid transit, dog whistle, or identity theft) don’t appear on the drop-down list when you type them in the search bar. For best results with compound words, place a quotation mark before the compound word in the search window.

guide to the dictionary

use-icon

THE USAGE PANEL

The Usage Panel is a group of nearly 200 prominent scholars, creative writers, journalists, diplomats, and others in occupations requiring mastery of language. Annual surveys have gauged the acceptability of particular usages and grammatical constructions.

The Panelists

puzzle-icon

NEED HELP SOLVING A CROSSWORD PUZZLE?

Go to our Crossword Puzzle Solver and type in the letters that you know, and the Solver will produce a list of possible solutions.

open-icon

AMERICAN HERITAGE DICTIONARY APP

The new American Heritage Dictionary app is now available for iOS and Android.

scroll-icon

THE AMERICAN HERITAGE DICTIONARY BLOG

The articles in our blog examine new words, revised definitions, interesting images from the fifth edition, discussions of usage, and more.

100-words-icon

See word lists from the best-selling 100 Words Series!

Find out more!

open-icon

INTERESTED IN DICTIONARIES?

Check out the Dictionary Society of North America at http://www.dictionarysociety.com

tread (trĕd)
Share:
v. trod (trŏd) or treaded, trod·den (trŏdn) or trod or treaded, tread·ing, treads
v.tr.
1. To walk on, over, or along: tread the pavement.
2. To press beneath the feet; trample: dirt that was trodden into the rug.
3. To treat unjustly or harshly; oppress: people who were trodden down by tyrants.
4. To form by walking or trampling: tread a path.
5. To execute by walking or dancing: tread a measure.
6. To copulate with. Used of a male bird.
v.intr.
1.
a. To go on foot; walk.
b. To set down the foot; step.
2.
a. To trample something. Used with on or upon: Don't tread on the new grass.
b. To treat someone or something unjustly or harshly. Used with on or upon: a regime treading upon the rights of the citizens.
3. To copulate. Used of birds.
n.
1.
a. The act, manner, or sound of treading.
b. An instance of treading; a step.
c. A mark made by treading, as in snow.
2. The upper horizontal part of a step in a staircase.
3.
a. The part of a wheel or tire that makes contact with the road or rails.
b. The grooved face of a tire.
4. The part of a shoe sole that touches the ground.
5. Either of the continuous ridged belts with which bulldozers, tanks, and certain other vehicles move over the ground.
Idioms:
tread the boards
To act on the stage: "We who tread the boards are not the only players of parts in this world" (John Fowles).
tread water
1. To keep the head above water while in an upright position by pumping the legs.
2. To expend effort but make little or no progress to achievement of a goal or an end.
[Middle English treden, from Old English tredan.]
treadless adj.
The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fifth Edition copyright ©2020 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. All rights reserved.
 

Indo-European & Semitic Roots Appendices

    Thousands of entries in the dictionary include etymologies that trace their origins back to reconstructed proto-languages. You can obtain more information about these forms in our online appendices:

    Indo-European Roots

    Semitic Roots

    The Indo-European appendix covers nearly half of the Indo-European roots that have left their mark on English words. A more complete treatment of Indo-European roots and the English words derived from them is available in our Dictionary of Indo-European Roots.

This website is best viewed in Chrome, Firefox, Microsoft Edge, or Safari. Some characters in pronunciations and etymologies cannot be displayed properly in Internet Explorer.