sword

CEFRB1

/soɹd/

noun

Türkçe translations

Translating…

In plain English

  1. 01

    noun

    A weapon with a long sharp blade.

  2. 02

    noun

    Extra detail

    A suit in certain playing card decks, particularly those used in Spain and Italy, or those used for divination.

Examples

  • The ancient knight drew his sharp sword to defend the kingdom.

  • The pen is mightier than the sword.

At a glance

Sits at B1 on the CEFR scale

Senses
5
Parts of speech
1
Citations
3

Also pronounced

  • /s(w)ɔːrd/
  • /s(w)uːrd/

Deep Dive

noun

Extra meanings

  1. A long bladed weapon with a grip and typically a pommel and crossguard (together forming a hilt), which is designed to cut, stab, slash and/or hack.

  2. A card of this suit.

  3. One of the end bars by which the lay of a hand loom is suspended.

More examples

In context

  • This sword has a strange history.

  • He took out his sword and stabbed the man in the stomach.

  • Malicious tunges, though they have no bones, Are ſharper then ſwordes, ſturdier then ſtones.

Quick test

Two questions on this entry. Nothing is scored.

Question 1 · Quick check

During the intense duel, the fencer used his blank to parry and strike.

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

Nearby

Origin

noun

Inherited from West Midland Middle English sword (swerd in most dialects), from Old English sweord (“sword”), from Proto-West Germanic *swerd (“sword”), from Proto-Germanic *swerdą (“sword”), possibly from Proto-Indo-European *seh₂w- (“sharp”). Cognates Cognate with North Frisian Swērt, Swiirt, swörd (“sword”), Saterland Frisian Swid, Swäid (“sword”), West Frisian swurd (“sword”), Dutch zwaard (“sword”), German Schwert (“sword”), Luxembourgish Schwäert (“sword”), Vilamovian świert (“sword”), Yiddish שווערד (shverd, “sword”), Danish sværd (“sword”), Faroese svørð (“sword”), Icelandic sverð (“sword”), Norn svird (“small longish object”), Norwegian Bokmål sverd (“sword”), Norwegian Nynorsk sve...