adj, noun, verb ·Common ·High school level

Definitions

Noun

1. 1
   A lever operated by one's foot that is used to control or power a machine or mechanism, such as a bicycle or piano.

   "There are three pedals on manual cars, two on automatics."

2. 2
   a lever that is operated with the foot wordnet
3. 3
   an orthopedic structure or a footlike part.
4. 4
   a sustained bass note wordnet
5. 5
   An effects unit, especially one designed to be activated by being stepped on.

Show 2 more definitions

6. 6
   A stirrup. humorous
7. 7
   The ranks of pipes played from the pedal-board of an organ.

   "A small organ commonly has only one or two ranks on the pedal."

Verb

1. 1
   To operate a pedal attached to a wheel in a continuous circular motion.

   "to pedal one's loom"

2. 2
   operate the pedals on a keyboard instrument wordnet
3. 3
   To operate a bicycle. intransitive

   "He was out of breath from pedalling up the steep hill."

4. 4
   ride a bicycle wordnet

Adjective

1. 1
   Of or relating to the foot. not-comparable

Adjective

1. 1
   of or relating to the feet wordnet

Synonyms

All synonyms

bicyclemanualadvancebarbeambicycle

Example

More examples

"Each time you step on the pedal, the wheel turns once."

Etymology

Borrowed from French pédale, Latin pedāl(is). By surface analysis, ped- + -al.

Related phrases

back pedal brakeback-pedalbrake pedalclutch pedalcombination pedalfoot pedalgas pedalgo pedalloop pedalpedal binpedal bonepedal car

Data sourced from Wiktionary, WordNet, CMU, and other open linguistic databases. Updated March 2026.