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blade (blād)
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n.
1. The flat cutting part of a sharpened weapon or tool.
2.
a. A sword.
b. A swordsman.
3. Archaeology A slender, sharp-edged flake that is at least twice as long as it is wide.
4. A dashing youth.
5.
a. A flat thin part or section, especially one that makes contact to perform a desired action: the blade of an oar; the blade of a hockey stick.
b. An arm of a rotating mechanism: the blade of a propeller; the blade of a food processor.
c. A long, thin, often curved piece, as of metal or rubber, used for plowing, clearing, or wiping.
6. The metal runner of an ice skate.
7. A wide flat bone or bony part.
8. The flat upper surface of the tongue just behind the tip.
9. Botany
a. The expanded part of a leaf or petal.
b. The leaf of grasses or similar plants.
intr.v. blad·ed, blad·ing, blades
To skate on in-line skates.
[Middle English, from Old English blæd; see bhel-3 in the Appendix of Indo-European roots.]
bladed adj.
The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fifth Edition copyright ©2022 by HarperCollins Publishers. All rights reserved.
 

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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