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strand¹

(strănd)

Land, typically a beach, bordering a body of water.

v. strand·ed, strand·ing, strands

v.tr.

a. To drive or run (a boat, for example) ashore or aground.

b. To cause (a whale or other sea animal) to be unable to swim free from a beach or from shallow water.

2. To bring into or leave in a difficult or helpless position: The convoy was stranded in the desert.

3. Baseball To leave (a base runner) on base at the end of an inning.

4. Linguistics To separate (a grammatical element) from other elements in a construction, either by moving it out of the construction or moving the rest of the construction. In the sentence What are you aiming at, the preposition at has been stranded.

v.intr.

1. To be driven or run ashore or aground: The boat stranded on the rocks.

2. To be stranded, as on a beach. Used of sea animals.

[Middle English, from Old English.]

strand²

(strănd)

1. A complex of fibers or filaments that have been twisted together to form a cable, rope, thread, or yarn.

a. A single filament, such as a fiber or thread, of a woven or braided material.

b. A ropelike length of something: a strand of pearls; a strand of DNA.

c. A wisp or lock of hair.

3. One of the elements woven together to make an intricate whole, such as the plot of a novel.

tr.v. strand·ed, strand·ing, strands

1. To make or form (a rope, for example) by twisting strands together.

2. To break a strand of (a rope, for example).

[Middle English strond.]

Indo-European & Semitic Roots Appendices

Thousands of entries in the dictionary include etymologies that trace their origins back to reconstructed proto-languages. You can obtain more information about these forms in our online appendices:

Indo-European Roots

Semitic Roots

The Indo-European appendix covers nearly half of the Indo-European roots that have left their mark on English words. A more complete treatment of Indo-European roots and the English words derived from them is available in our Dictionary of Indo-European Roots.

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