screed

noun

ˈskrēd 

1

a

: a lengthy discourse

b

: an informal piece of writing (such as a personal letter)

c

: a ranting piece of writing

2

: a strip (as of a plaster of the thickness planned for the coat) laid on as a guide

3

: a leveling device drawn over freshly poured concrete

Examples of screed in a Sentence

In her screed against the recording industry, she blamed her producer for ruining her career.

Recent Examples on the Web

On the evening before Thanksgiving, the president of the United States took to his social media platform to claim in a lengthy screed that immigration was destroying the country. —Miles Klee, Rolling Stone, 6 Dec. 2025

Ecofascism and Malthusian anxieties about overpopulation can go hand in hand with Unabomber anti-technology screeds and climate doomers. —Hazlitt, 3 Dec. 2025

So at least 220 mm deep (90 mm concrete, 50 mm insulation, 80 mm screed). —Melissa Fleur Afshar, MSNBC Newsweek, 3 Dec. 2025

The former’s manifesto was an elaborate, long-gestating screed against modern technological society, and his bombing campaign killed three and injured twenty-three, including low-level university employees and people who happened to be aboard an American Airlines flight. —Margaret Talbot, New Yorker, 15 Nov. 2025

Word History

Etymology

Middle English screde fragment, alteration of Old English scrēade — more at shred entry 1

First Known Use

1748, in the meaning defined at sense 1a

Rhymes for screed

• bead
• bleed
• brede
• breed
• cede
• creed
• deed
• feed
• freed
• greed
• heed
• keyed