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ENGLISH · A WORD WITH POSSIBILITIES

asunder.

Of two or more people or things:

7 characters3 syllables approx.English language

Meaning & usage

adv/əˈsʌndə/Received-Pronunciation/əˈsʌndəɹ/General-American
  1. Of two or more people or things: Apart or separate from each other.

    archaic · literary
  2. Of two or more people or things: Moving apart from each other.

    archaic · literary
  3. Into separate parts or pieces, often due to some violent action.

    also · archaic · figuratively · literary
    to crack asunder    torn asunder
  4. Apart from other people; individually, separately; specifically, in private, privately.

    archaic · literary · obsolete
  5. Chiefly in the form to know asunder: in a manner distinguishable from other similar things.

    archaic · literary · obsolete
Where this word comes from

From Middle English asunder, asonder (“apart in position, distant; apart in movement; to pieces; alone, separately; distinct in kind, different”), asondri (“distinct, separate”), onsunder, onsondre (“apart, asunder; alone, separately; especially, particularly (?)”), from Old English onsundrum, on sundur (“asunder, apart, privately”), probably from on- (prefix meaning ‘on, upon’) (ultimately from Proto-Indo-European *h₂en- (“on, onto”)) + sundor, sunder (“alone, apart; separately; privately”) (from Proto-West Germanic *sundr, from Proto-Germanic *sundraz (“alone, separate”), possibly from Proto-Indo-European *senH- (“apart; for oneself; without”)). By surface analysis, a- (prefix meaning ‘at; in; on’ denoting a condition, manner, or state) + sunder (“(obsolete except dialectal) different; separate”). cognates * Danish sønder * Dutch zonder * Faroese sundur * German sonder * Gothic 𐍃𐌿𐌽𐌳𐍂𐍉 (sundrō) * Icelandic sundur * Norwegian Bokmål sunder, sønder * Swedish sönder

adj/əˈsʌndə/Received-Pronunciation/əˈsʌndəɹ/General-American
  1. Different, unlike.

    archaic · literary · obsolete
Where this word comes from

From Middle English asunder, asonder (“apart in position, distant; apart in movement; to pieces; alone, separately; distinct in kind, different”), asondri (“distinct, separate”), onsunder, onsondre (“apart, asunder; alone, separately; especially, particularly (?)”), from Old English onsundrum, on sundur (“asunder, apart, privately”), probably from on- (prefix meaning ‘on, upon’) (ultimately from Proto-Indo-European *h₂en- (“on, onto”)) + sundor, sunder (“alone, apart; separately; privately”) (from Proto-West Germanic *sundr, from Proto-Germanic *sundraz (“alone, separate”), possibly from Proto-Indo-European *senH- (“apart; for oneself; without”)). By surface analysis, a- (prefix meaning ‘at; in; on’ denoting a condition, manner, or state) + sunder (“(obsolete except dialectal) different; separate”). cognates * Danish sønder * Dutch zonder * Faroese sundur * German sonder * Gothic 𐍃𐌿𐌽𐌳𐍂𐍉 (sundrō) * Icelandic sundur * Norwegian Bokmål sunder, sønder * Swedish sönder

verb/əˈsʌndə/Received-Pronunciation/əˈsʌndəɹ/General-American
  1. To set apart (one or more people or things) from other people or things; to put asunder, to separate, to sunder.

    archaic · literary · transitive
Where this word comes from

From Middle English asondren (“to alienate; to separate; to depart; to part company; to disappear”), from Old English asundran, āsundrian (“to disjoin; to separate; to sunder, put asunder; to sever”) (possibly influenced by onsundrum (adverb): see etymology 1), from ā- (prefix meaning ‘away; from’) (ultimately from Proto-Indo-European *úd (“away; out”)) + sundrian (“to separate, sunder”) (from Proto-Germanic *sundrōną (“to separate, sunder”), from *sundraz (“alone, separate”) (see further at etymology 1) + *-ōną (suffix forming factitive verbs from adjectives)).

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Definitions, grammatical labels, IPA, etymology and examples: Wiktionary contributors, extracted by Kaikki / Wiktextract. Adapted under CC BY-SA 4.0. Selected fields and authored examples are shown; third-party quotations and audio are omitted. See contributor history.

Last enriched 2026-09-10. Definitions are in English. Romanizations are shown when supplied by the source; syllable estimates are omitted for unsupported scripts.