Editing Rhayader (section)

== Etymology ==
The name, ''Rhayader'', is a partly-Anglicised form of its Welsh name, {{lang|cy|Y Rhaeadr}} ('the waterfall'),  or, to distinguish it from other places named after waterfalls, {{lang|cy|Rhaeadr Gwy}} ('waterfall [on the] Wye'). Strictly speaking, according to place-name spelling conventions in Welsh, the name of the town would be {{lang|cy|Rhaeadr-gwy}}, and the waterfall itself {{lang|cy|Rhaeadr Gwy}}, but it seems that this distinction is usually ignored.{{cn |date=March 2023 }}

In the Welsh of the area the name is {{lang|cy|Rheiad}}, as one would expect on the pattern of similar words in colloquial Welsh, {{IPA|cy|ˈr̥əɪad|pron}}.<ref>{{cite web|url= https://amgueddfa.cymru/casgliadau/storigwerin/?story=16 |title=Hen Ffrwcsod Ffair-rhos – Mary Thomas (1905-83)|publisher=Amgueddfa Cymru|access-date=30 May 2017}}</ref> That is, a final "r" is dropped after "d", as in {{lang|cy|aradr}} ('plough') > {{lang|cy|arad}}, {{lang|cy|Llangynidr}} ('church of Cynidr', a village in Breconshire) > {{lang|cy|Llangynid}}, {{lang|cy|Cadwaladr}} (a forename, 'battle-leader') > {{lang|cy|Cadwalad}}, {{lang|cy|'Dwalad}}.

Little remains of the [[waterfall]] itself, it having been destroyed in 1780 to make way for the bridge linking the town to {{lang|cy|[[Cwmdauddwr]]|italic=no}} and the [[Elan Valley Reservoirs|Elan Valley]], the Lakeland of Wales.