sunder
/ˈsʌndɚ/
Word Rarity
Very rare
Frequency: Zipf frequency 2.47 in modern English
7
Scrabble Score
6
Letters
2
Syllables
6
Unique Chars
Meaning
noun
a separation into parts; a division or severance
Example Sentences
- "Notwithstanding its terrifically wide sweep, (some thirty feet or more,) and the hissing vigor of its descent, sufficient to sunder these very walls of iron, still the fraying of my robe would be all that, for several minutes, it would accomplish."
- "In Taran's hand the sundered bone had turned into gray dust, which he cast aside."
- "Two souls, the shores wave-mocked of sundering seas: — Such are we now."
- "… Carlo finally saw Everything, before it sunders into things; he saw Knowledge before it sunders into knowing; he saw Integrity before it sunders in integrals; he saw Unity before it sunders into units."
- "Where a fair opportunity offers, and the grass is perfectly dry, the hipples are sundered; that is, broken out into beds in the usual manner, turned, and again got up into cocklets, of such size as the state of dryness requires."
- "Except under abnormal conditions, protection can be afforded to a field by cutting a strip half a chain in width all round the field, with a reaper and binder for preference, when the crop is in the best condition for hay, and then ploughing or sunder-cutting the stubble."
Etymology
From Middle English sunder, from Old English sundor- (“separate, different”), from Proto-Germanic *sundraz (“isolated, particular, alone”), from Proto-Indo-European *snter-, *seni-, *senu-, *san- (“apart, without, for oneself”). Cognate with Old Saxon sundar (“particular, special”), Dutch zonder (“without”), German sonder- (“special”), German sondern (“to separate, set apart”), Old Norse sundr (“separate”), Danish sønder (“apart, asunder”), Latin sine (“without”).
Origin
Word Breakdown
- Root: sunder, sundor-, *sundraz, *snter-, sundren, sundrian
Regional Pronunciation
- American English: /ˈsʌndɚ/
Usage
Inflected Forms
more sunder (comparative)
most sunder (superlative)
sunders (present, singular)
sundering (participle, present)
sundered (participle, past)
sundered (past)
sunders (plural)