asunder
/əˈsʌndəɹ/
Word Rarity
Rare
Frequency: Zipf frequency 2.60 in modern English
8
Scrabble Score
7
Letters
3
Syllables
7
Unique Chars
Meaning
adv
Apart from other people; individually, separately; specifically, in private, privately.
Archaic; Literary; Obsolete
adv
Chiefly in the form to know asunder: in a manner distinguishable from other similar things.
Archaic; Literary; Obsolete
Example Sentences
- "Page. I vvarrant you, hee's the man ſhould fight vvith him. / […] [Robert] Shal[low]. It appeares ſo by his vveapons: keep them aſunder: […]"
- "Heer's a coyle to keep fire and tovv a ſunder."
- "He deſired I vvould ſtand like a Coloſſus, vvith my Legs as far aſunder as I conveniently could. He then commanded his General, […] to dravv up the Troops in cloſe Order, and march them under me; […]"
- "[L]ay the Dung about a Foot thick, covering it over vvith light rich Earth, about ſix or eight Inches, into vvhich, on each Side, you ſhould put in ſome of the Knobs of Muſhroom Earth, about ſix Inches aſunder."
- "[T]hese two never seemed to speak—one man to the other—unless at long intervals some passing unmomentous matter made it necessary. Though such a potent spell seemed secretly to join the twain; openly, and to the awe-struck crew, they seemed pole-like asunder."
- "Right, the sacrifice of self to good; wrong, the sacrifice of good to self;—not graduated objects of desire, to which we are determined by the degrees of our knowledge, but wide asunder as pole and pole, as light and darkness—one, the object of infinite love; the other, the object of infinite detestation and scorn."
Etymology
From Middle English asunder, asonder (“apart in position, distant; apart in movement; to pieces; alone, separately; distinct in kind, different”), asondri (“distinct, separate”), onsunder, onsondre (“apart, asunder; alone, separately; especially, particularly (?)”), from Old English onsundrum, on sundur (“asunder, apart, privately”), probably from on- (prefix meaning ‘on, upon’) (ultimately from Proto-Indo-European *h₂en- (“on, onto”)) + sundor, sunder (“alone, apart; separately; privately”) (from Proto-West Germanic *sundr, from Proto-Germanic *sundraz (“alone, separate”), possibly from Proto-Indo-European *senH- (“apart; for oneself; without”)). By surface analysis, a- (prefix meaning ‘at; in; on’ denoting a condition, manner, or state) + sunder (“(obsolete except dialectal) different; separate”). cognates * Danish sønder * Dutch zonder * Faroese sundur * German sonder * Gothic 𐍃𐌿𐌽𐌳𐍂𐍉 (sundrō) * Icelandic sundur * Norwegian Bokmål sunder, sønder * Swedish sönder
Origin
Word Breakdown
- Root: *h₂en-, asunder, onsundrum, *sundr, *sundraz, *senH-
Regional Pronunciation
- American English: /əˈsʌndəɹ/
- British English: /əˈsʌndə/
Usage
Inflected Forms
more asunder (comparative)
most asunder (superlative)
asundre (alternative)
insunder (alternative)
asunders (present, singular)
asundering (participle, present)
asundered (participle, past)
asundered (past)