Origin: Germanic Old English prefix
Bead has 8 different meanings across 2 categories:
a small ball with a hole through the middle
"She threaded the colorful bead onto the string to make her necklace."
Prayer, later especially with a rosary.
"She moved her finger along each bead of the rosary while reciting the Hail Marys."
In plain English: A bead is a small, round object with a hole through it that you can string together to make jewelry or decorations.
"She threaded each small glass bead onto the string to make her necklace."
form into beads, as of water or sweat, for example
"The hot summer rain began to bead on the wide leaves of the palm tree."
To form into a bead.
"The heat caused the molten metal to contract and pull back, forming a distinct ridge that beaded along the edge of the seam."
The word bead originally meant "a prayer" in Old English before taking on its current sense of a small object used for counting those prayers. It traveled into modern usage as the physical tool associated with saying the original verbal requests to which it once referred.