Other forms: reeds
A reed is a tall stiff grass growing at the water's edge. A bed of reeds, reeds along the bank, cut the reeds.
Reed beds are among the most valuable wildlife habitats there are, and they also filter water, which is why they are built deliberately in sewage treatment. Reed is the traditional thatching material for roofs in eastern England. In music, a reed is the thin strip of cane that vibrates in a clarinet, oboe or saxophone, and reed instruments are named for it. Note a broken reed, meaning somebody who fails you when relied on.
1nounreedA tall stiff grass growing at the water's edge.
“The reeds hide the water completely by August.”
2nounthinThe thin strip of cane that vibrates in some instruments.
“He goes through about a reed a fortnight.”
Too few real examples of this word to estimate which sense is commonest.
reed is a plant, or a part of an instrument.
Old English hreod is Germanic and has no relatives outside the family. The musical sense is the same word: the first reeds in instruments were cut from the plant, and cane has replaced it without changing the name.
Proto-West Germanic
*hreud — reed
Old English
hrēod
Middle English
red
English, today
reed
From Middle English red, from Old English hrēod, from Proto-West Germanic hreud (“reed”), of uncertain origin. 2 Cognate with frr raid (“reed”), stq Räit (“reed”), West Frisian reid (“reed”), Dutch riet (“reed”), German Reet, Ried (“reed”). No cognates in North Germanic languages, but the existence of an otherwise unattested Gothic 𐌷𐍂𐌹𐌿𐌳 was supposed by the brothers Grimm. They also theorised that the word may have a relation to the retas mentioned in Noctes Atticae (Aulus Gellius). The measuring reed sense is the translation of Akkadian qanûm ("cane") used in the Bible and elsewhere.
Etymology from Wiktionary, CC BY-SA