bedding
Americannoun
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beddings
plural
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blankets, sheets, etc., used on a bed; bedclothes.
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bedclothes together with a mattress.
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litter; straw, etc., as a bed for animals.
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Building Trades.
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a foundation or bottom layer.
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a thin layer of putty laid in the rabbet of a window frame or muntin to give a pane of glass an even backing.
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Geology. arrangement of sedimentary rocks in strata.
adjective
noun
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bedclothes, sometimes considered together with a mattress
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litter, such as straw, for animals
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something acting as a foundation, such as mortar under a brick
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the arrangement of a mass of rocks into distinct layers; stratification
Other Word Forms
Noun Inflected Forms
Etymology
Origin of bedding
Explanation
Use the word bedding when you're talking about sheets, pillowcases, blankets, or any other coverings for a bed. If you switch from a twin to a queen-sized bed, you'll need new bedding. When a college student moves into a dorm room she brings her own bedding, and when your grandmother gets her guest room ready for a visitor, she might wash all the bedding. Bedding also means the straw, hay, or other materials that a farm animal sleeps on — or the shredded paper you use to line your gerbil's cage. It comes from the Old English word beddinge, "bed covering," from bedd, "bed" or "resting place."
Example Sentences
Examples are provided to illustrate real-world usage of words in context. Any opinions expressed do not reflect the views of Dictionary.com.
See Examples For:
The suite came with your standard front-of-the-plane amenities: a bigger screen with remote, bedding, skin-care lotion, socks, eye mask, a reusable water bottle, ear plugs and noise-canceling headphones.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Aug. 19, 2026
Some had access to water, but the litter trays and bedding were dirty and "strewn on the floor".
From BBC ● Aug. 14, 2026
Hundreds of volunteers hurried through the packed parking lot next to Bogota's largest stadium, forming human chains to pass donated water bottles, food provisions, sanitary products and bedding to the sorting area.
From Barron's ● Aug. 14, 2026
The next morning, she woke up to a "horrible realisation", feeling itchy with red lumps over her body and blood spots smeared on the bedding — the tell-tale signs of bed bugs, she said.
From BBC ● Aug. 8, 2026
In his last moments, she said, he had run his fingers over his bedding as if playing the piano.
From "The Devil in the White City" by Erik Larson
Maxx and Five Below for deals on neon lights, wall paper decals and beddings.
From Seattle Times ● Sep. 3, 2023
You can also put beddings, removable upholstery and curtains in a hot tumble dryer for 20 minutes to kill them.
From Salon ● Oct. 26, 2015
The walls were moldy and hung with ancient cobwebs; the curtains and beddings were rotten; the furniture was rickety and ready to fall to pieces.
From A Tramp Abroad — Volume 03 by Mark Twain
In the old tales these three materials—brushwood, moss, and rushes—are called the "Three beddings of the Fena."
From A Reading Book in Irish History by P. W. Joyce
Definitions and idiom definitions from Dictionary.com Unabridged, based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2023
Idioms from The American Heritage® Idioms Dictionary copyright © 2002, 2001, 1995 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company.
