pads 1 of 3

plural of pad
1
as in notebooks
a number of sheets of writing paper glued together at one edge the waitress keeps a pad in the pocket of her apron to write down orders

Synonyms & Similar Words

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2
3
as in buffers
something that serves as a protective barrier a pad on the chair to keep it from getting scratched

Synonyms & Similar Words

4

pads

2 of 3

verb (1)

present tense third-person singular of pad

pads

3 of 3

verb (2)

present tense third-person singular of pad

Example Sentences

Examples are automatically compiled from online sources to show current usage. Read More Opinions expressed in the examples do not represent those of Merriam-Webster or its editors. Send us feedback.
Recent Examples of pads
Noun
At one practice during the fall of 2024, Washington’s assistant athletic director of football academics Diamond Brown was standing on the sideline when Jonah bounded up to her in full pads and begun complaining about his grade in a music class. Luca Evans, Denver Post, 21 June 2026 These PowerGlow Peel pads from Blue Mercury’s m-61 brand will keep your skin in shape throughout all the SPF, makeup, sweat, self-tan, sand, and chlorine. Olivia Cefalu, InStyle, 21 June 2026 In Sing & Play Mode, the device automatically handles complex chord progressions and backing rhythms, while Solo Mode maps individual notes to the pads. New Atlas, 21 June 2026 Maddie’s Secret isn’t a drag film, although Early had to don a blond wig, breast prosthetics, and hip pads to take on the role. Ct Jones, Rolling Stone, 20 June 2026 Sleeping pads filled with air are usually designed for single-person use. Bestreviews, Chicago Tribune, 19 June 2026 The iRobot Roomba Plus 505 Combo uses 7,000 Pa suction and active SmartScrub mop pads to pull dirt from carpets and dissolve hard floor stains. Juhi Wadia, PC Magazine, 19 June 2026 The graying wrap their knees in thick white pads, still chasing Saturday-morning glory at 70. Sean Gregory, Time, 14 June 2026 Players are not in pads or permitted to have full contact during the offseason workouts. Rick Stroud, The Orlando Sentinel, 13 June 2026
Verb
In other words, the additional money that our companies are shelling out to cover higher memory costs ultimately pads these three companies’ bottom lines. Kevin Stankiewicz, CNBC, 21 June 2026 Adding the killer’s voice just pads an already too-long book. Maren Longbella, Boston Herald, 19 Oct. 2025 Not to say there aren’t some clunkers, most notably a jokey take-me-out-to-the-ballgame baseball number that pads the second act, but the Flaherty-Ahrens score was and is Ragtime‘s signature achievement. Greg Evans, Deadline, 16 Oct. 2025 The exchange is indicative of this odd, frustrating, occasionally intriguing project, which pads out scarce but real nuggets of insight with leading questions and endless clips. Alison Herman, Variety, 10 Sep. 2025 Stanfield is the second new face named this month, after French actor Paul Kircher, as Anderson pads out the ranks of his men’s ambassadors following a rash of appointments on the women’s side. Joelle Diderich, Footwear News, 3 Sep. 2019
Recent Examples of Synonyms for pads
Noun
  • The best smart notebooks This smart notebook fits in a pocket, has 48 reusable pages and comes with the Pilot Frixion pen required for note-taking.
    BestReviews, Chicago Tribune, 14 Aug. 2025
  • Lunch boxes, markers, notebooks and notebook filler paper.
    Miami Herald Archives, Miami Herald, 6 Aug. 2025
Noun
  • Master suites accommodate up to six guests, while even the junior suites provide ample space with king and double beds.
    Chelsea Adams, USA Today, 20 June 2026
  • Fill raised beds with a custom mix of topsoil, compost, and lava sand, and add trellises for support and airflow.
    Johanna Silver, Better Homes & Gardens, 20 June 2026
Noun
  • South Africa’s Standard Bank aims to be Kenya’s biggest lender by 2030, its regional chief told Semafor, a rare public shot at climbing East Africa’s banking hierarchy as the International Monetary Fund warns that the region’s economic buffers are dangerously fragile.
    Tiisetso Motsoeneng, semafor.com, 15 June 2026
  • Most siblings have natural buffers.
    Staff Author, Parents, 13 June 2026
Noun
  • Wind could damage roofs, siding and trees.
    John Tufts, IndyStar, 18 June 2026
  • Charlotte Amalie rises in tiers of red roofs and old stone, a waterfront that looks part Baltic, part tropical.
    David Dickstein, Oc Register, 17 June 2026
Verb
  • Moon sign, which colors their emotional self.
    Maressa Brown, Parents, 18 June 2026
  • In her latest offering, the 32-year-old pivots from the darker sound of her debut, moving toward a meditative approach (in the very literal sense) to the music that colors life in the Caribbean.
    Los Angeles Times, Los Angeles Times, 4 June 2026
Verb
  • The paper treads similar ground as previous research, which has noted large language models’ ability to search genomes for genes that have been sequenced after a patient was first seen in a hospital.
    Jared Perlo, NBC news, 18 June 2026
  • In his typical spare and deliberate style, Romanian director Cristian Mungiu has crafted yet another Palme d’Or-worthy film that fearlessly treads into controversial issues in our society but pointedly doesn’t take sides.
    Pete Hammond, Deadline, 18 May 2026
Noun
  • Ivermectin is a Nobel Prize-winning, generally safe drug approved by the FDA for treating parasitic diseases in humans, which can generally be done with a single dose of three or four prescription-strength tablets.
    ABC News, ABC News, 17 June 2026
  • Media coverage of studies such as Czeisler’s triggered a wave of panic about devices and their impact on sleep, and soon everyone was fitting their tablets with blue filters or donning blue-blocker glasses to prevent all those blue photons from reaching their eyeballs at night.
    Literary Hub, Literary Hub, 17 June 2026
Noun
  • In an era of inflation, rising cost of living and widespread economic anxiety, the true fans of yesteryear watch from couches across America.
    Marcus Thompson II, New York Times, 13 June 2026
  • Starlink is a communications network already in orbit, with some of its most strategically important customers in defense, maritime and aviation, not only on living-room couches.
    Robert J. Szczerba, Forbes.com, 13 June 2026

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Cite this Entry

“Pads.” Merriam-Webster.com Thesaurus, Merriam-Webster, https://www.merriam-webster.com/thesaurus/pads. Accessed 25 Jun. 2026.

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