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bead

Small object, usually pierced for stringing. It may be made of virtually any material—wood, shell, bone, seed, nut, metal, stone, glass, or plastic—and is worn or affixed to another object for decorative or, in some cultures, magical purposes. The earliest Egyptian beads (c. 4000 BC) were made of stone, feldspar, lapis lazuli, carnelian, turquoise, hematite, or amethyst and were variously shaped (sphere, cone, shell, animal head). By 3000–2000 BC, gold beads in tubular shapes were in use. From the Middle Ages to the 18th century, trade in beads was enormous. Today the richness of beadwork varies with fashion.

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bead

(1) A small programming subroutine. A sequence of beads that are strung together is called a "thread."

(2) The insulator surrounding the inner wire of a coaxial cable.

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bead

1. Architect Furniture a small convex moulding having a semicircular cross section

2. Chem a small solid globule made by fusing a powdered sample with borax or a similar flux on a platinum wire. The colour of the globule serves as a test for the presence of certain metals (bead test)

3. Metallurgy a deposit of welding metal on the surface of a metal workpiece, often used to examine the structure of the weld zone

4. RC Church one of the beads of a rosary