Glossary of rosary terms
Glossary of terms
The world of rosaries speaks several languages at once — Greek, Arabic, Turkish, Sanskrit. This glossary gathers the key words in one place, briefly and precisely. Strand types come first, construction details follow.
Types of strands
Rosary — the general name for a strand of beads run through the fingers for counting, prayer, or calm.
Komboloi (Greek κομπολόι) — Mediterranean secular “worry beads”. They carry no religious meaning and serve relaxation and play. Usually an odd number of beads and a long threading for flipping.
Begleri (Greek μπεγλέρι) — a short variant: 8–16 beads on a cord, split in half. They are flipped between the fingers in quick motions; this is dexterity rather than counting.
Tasbih / misbaha — Islamic prayer beads for dhikr. Tasbih names both the practice of praise and the beads themselves; misbaha is the Arabic name for the instrument. Typically 33 or 99 beads.
Mala — Buddhist and Hindu beads, classically 108 with a “guru bead”, used for repeating mantras.
Catholic rosary — beads with a crucifix, built on decades for the Hail Mary and Our Father prayers.
Vervitsa / lestovka — Orthodox knotted prayer cords for the Jesus Prayer, most often of 100 knots.
Worry beads — the English collective term for secular anti-anxiety strands, chiefly the komboloi.
Parts of the construction
Grain (bead) — a single element run through the fingers.
Imam — the elongated head bead of Islamic strands, joining the cord ends and serving as the starting point of the count.
Head bead — the neutral name for the point where the cord closes.
Guru bead — the special bead of a mala marking the start and end of the circle; one does not cross it but turns the count back.
Threading (tail) — the free length of cord from the head to the tassel, often with small beads; the key element for spinning a komboloi.
Tassel — the bundle of threads at the end, balancing the strand and absorbing momentum during flips.
Separator bead — a large or contrasting grain marking groups for counting by touch.
Shape, finish, and sound
Facet — a flat cut surface on a bead; faceted grains catch the light and sound sharper.
The roll (perebor) — the act of passing the beads through the fingers, and the characteristic sound it makes.
Patina — the noble sheen of age that a material (bone, horn, wood, amber) gains from the hands over years of use.
Schreger pattern — the characteristic cross-hatch of lines on the cross-section of a tusk, by which mammoth and elephant are told apart from imitations.