sand

CEFRB1

/sænd/

noun · verb

Türkçe translations

Translating…

In plain English

  1. 01

    noun

    Tiny grains of rock found on beaches and in deserts.

  2. 02

    verb

    To smooth a surface using sandpaper.

Examples

  • Your scheme is like a house built on the sand.

  • The Canadian tar sands are a promising source of oil.

At a glance

Sits at B1 on the CEFR scale

Senses
5
Parts of speech
2
Citations
5
Synonyms
1

Also pronounced

  • [seːnd] ~ [sɛeːnd]
  • [seənd] ~ [sɛənd]

Deep Dive

noun

Extra meanings

  1. Rock that is ground more finely than gravel, but is not as fine as silt (more formally, see grain sizes chart), forming beaches and deserts and also used in construction.

  2. A specific grade, type, or composition of sand.

  3. A particle from 62.5 microns to 2 mm in diameter, following the Wentworth scale.

More examples

In context

  • Dry sand absorbs water.

  • Cf. Sandman, a mythical character in European folklore who puts people to sleep and encourages and inspires beautiful dreams by sprinkling magical sand onto their eyes.

  • Cf. sands of time (idiom)

Synonyms

Quick test

Two questions on this entry. Nothing is scored.

Question 1 · Quick check

The beach was covered with fine white blank that felt soft to touch.

Practise this properly in the app, where the word comes back before you forget it.

Nearby

Origin

noun

Middle English sond English sand Inherited from Middle English sond, sand, from Old English sand, from Proto-West Germanic *samd, from Proto-Germanic *samdaz. See also North Frisian sun, Sön, sönj (“sand”), Saterland Frisian Sound (“sand”), West Frisian sân (“sand”), Dutch zand (“sand”), German and Luxembourgish Sand (“sand”), Yiddish זאַמד (zamd, “sand”), Danish, Norwegian Bokmål, Norwegian Nynorsk, and Swedish sand (“sand”), Faroese and Icelandic sandur (“sand”), Latin sabulum (“sand, gravel”), Ancient Greek ἄμαθος (ámathos, “sand”), English dialectal samel (“sand bottom”), Old Irish do·essim (“to pour out”), Latin sentina (“bilge water”), Lithuanian sémti (“to scoop”), Ancient Greek ἀμάω...