blend
/blɛnd/
Word Rarity
Rare
Frequency: 3.95 in modern English
8
Scrabble Score
5
Letters
1
Syllables
5
Unique Chars
Meaning
noun
A word formed by combining two other words; a portmanteau word.
verb
To mingle; to mix; to unite intimately; to pass or shade insensibly into each other.
Transitive verb
Example Sentences
- "Their music has been described as a blend of jazz and heavy metal."
- "Our department has a good blend of experienced workers and young promise."
- "Blends, also known as portmanteau words, are not an original part of English. That is, none occur in Old or Middle English, nor even in Elizabethan English, with the earliest known example being the rare and now obsolete term tomaxe, a blend of tomahawk and axe."
- "To make hummus you need to blend chickpeas, olive oil, lemon juice and garlic."
- "There is a tone of solemn and sacred feeling that blends with our conviviality."
- "To feel no other breezes than are blown / Through its tall woods with high romances blent"
Etymology
From Middle English blenden, either from Old English blandan, blondan, ġeblandan, ġeblendan or from Old Norse blanda (“to blend, mix”) (which was originally a strong verb with the present-tense stem blend; compare blendingr (“a blending, a mixture; a half-breed”)), whence also Danish blande, or from a blend of the Old English and Old Norse terms; both ultimately from Proto-Germanic *blandaną (“to blend; mix; combine”). Compare Middle Dutch blanden (“to mix”), Gothic 𐌱𐌻𐌰𐌽𐌳𐌰𐌽 (blandan), Old Church Slavonic блєсти (blesti, “to go astray”).