How do you use the word "sand" in a sentence?

Here are real-life examples of using "sand": Your scheme is like a house built on the sand. Dry sand absorbs water.

Sand Meaning

/sænd/

Definition, CEFR level B1, pronunciation, examples, and quiz.

Definition

nounRock 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.

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

Sentence Examples

Your scheme is like a house built on the sand.

Dry sand absorbs water.

Synonyms & Antonyms

Synonyms:

guts grit backbone

Antonyms:

None

CEFR Practice Quiz

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

CEFR Practice Quiz (Alternate)

The children built an elaborate castle in the ____ at the edge of the beach.

Word Origin & History

Etymology tree substratebor. Proto-Indo-European *sámdʰos? Proto-Germanic *samdaz Proto-West Germanic *samd Old English sand 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 (amáō, “to gather”), ἄμη (ámē, “water bucket”).

Literary Quotations & Historical Citations

"For a spell we done pretty well. Then there came a reg'lar terror of a sou'wester same as you don't get one summer in a thousand, and blowed the shanty flat and ripped about half of the weir poles out of the sand." — 1913, Joseph C[rosby] Lincoln, chapter I, in Mr. Pratt’s Patients, New York, N.Y.; London: D[aniel] Appleton and Company, →OCLC:

"“We are addicted to sand but don’t know it because we don’t buy it as individuals,” says Aurora Torres, […]" — 2018, Neil Tweedie, “Is the world running out of sand? The truth behind stolen beaches and dredged islands”, in The Guardian:

"China’s hunger for sand is insatiable, its biggest dredging site at Lake Poyang produces 989,000 tonnes per day." — 2018, Neil Tweedie, “Is the world running out of sand? The truth behind stolen beaches and dredged islands”, in The Guardian:

"One sand was that used in cement testing with white well rounded smooth grains, passing through a 20-mesh sieve and retained on a 30-mesh sieve. The other was ordinary brown building sand, passing 40-mesh and retained on 60-mesh." — 1922, Harvey Whipple, Concrete, volumes 20-21, page 96:

"From east and south the danger was to be expected. Not from the uninhabited northern desert, not from the desolate sands of the unknown west, would it come." — 1892, James Yoxall, chapter 14, in The Lonely Pyramid:

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