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ENGLISH · A WORD WITH POSSIBILITIES

ground.

The surface of the Earth, as opposed to the sky or water or underground.

6 characters1 syllables approx.English language

Meaning & usage

noun/ɡɹaʊnd/General-American, Received-Pronunciation/ɡɹʊnd/Northumbria
  1. The surface of the Earth, as opposed to the sky or water or underground.

    countable · uncountable
    Look, I found a ten dollar bill on the ground!
  2. Terrain.

    uncountable
  3. Soil, earth.

    countable · uncountable
    The worm crawls through the ground.
  4. The bottom of a body of water.

    countable
  5. Basis, foundation, groundwork, legwork.

    countable · uncountable
  6. Reason, (epistemic) justification, cause.

    countable · in-plural · uncountable
    You will need to show good grounds for your action.
    He could not come on grounds of health, or on health grounds.
  7. Background, context, framework, surroundings.

    countable · uncountable
  8. The area on which a battle is fought, particularly as referring to the area occupied by one side or the other. Often, according to the eventualities, "to give ground" or "to gain ground".

    countable · historical · uncountable
  9. Advantage given or gained in any contest; e.g. in football, chess, debate or academic discourse.

    broadly · countable · figuratively · uncountable
  10. A place suited to a specified activity.

    countable · in-compounds · uncountable
    a forest traditionally used as a hunting-ground
  11. The plain surface upon which the figures of an artistic composition are set.

    countable · uncountable
    crimson flowers on a white ground
  12. A flat surface upon which figures are raised in relief.

    countable · uncountable
  13. The net of small meshes upon which the embroidered pattern is applied.

    countable · uncountable
  14. A gummy substance spread over the surface of a metal to be etched, to prevent the acid from eating except where an opening is made by the needle.

    countable · uncountable
  15. One of the pieces of wood, flush with the plastering, to which mouldings etc. are attached.

    countable · in-plural · uncountable
    Grounds are usually put up first and the plastering floated flush with them.
  16. A soccer stadium.

    UK · countable
    Manchester United's ground is known as Old Trafford.
  17. An electrical conductor connected to the earth, or a large conductor whose electrical potential is taken as zero (such as a steel chassis).

    countable · uncountable
  18. Electric shock.

    Philippines · countable · uncountable
  19. The area of grass on which a match is played (a cricket field); the entire arena in which it is played; the part of the field behind a batsman's popping crease where he can not be run out (hence to make one's ground).

    countable
  20. A composition in which the bass, consisting of a few bars of independent notes, is continually repeated to a varying melody.

    countable · uncountable
  21. The tune on which descants are raised; the plain song.

    countable · uncountable
  22. The pit of a theatre.

    countable · uncountable
  23. Synonym of munny (“land measure”).

    India · countable · obsolete · uncountable
Where this word comes from

Etymology tree Proto-Indo-European *gʰrem- Proto-Indo-European *-tus Proto-Germanic *grunduz Old English grund Middle English ground English ground From Middle English ground, from Old English grund, from Proto-West Germanic *grundu, from Proto-Germanic *grunduz. Cognate with West Frisian grûn, Dutch grond and German Grund. (to punish): Compare (to bring) down to earth, to come down to earth.

verb/ɡɹaʊnd/General-American, Received-Pronunciation/ɡɹʊnd/Northumbria
  1. To connect (an electrical conductor or device) to a ground.

    US · transitive
  2. To electrocute.

    Philippines · transitive
  3. To punish, especially a child or teenager, by forcing them to stay at home and/or give up certain privileges.

    transitive
    If you don't clean your room, I'll have no choice but to ground you.
    Eric, you are grounded until further notice for lying to us about where you were last night!
  4. To forbid (an aircraft or pilot) to fly.

    transitive
    Because of the bad weather, all flights were grounded.
  5. To give a basic education in a particular subject; to instruct in elements or first principles.

    transitive
    Jim was grounded in maths.
  6. To place a bat or part of the body on the ground to avoid being run out.

  7. To hit a ground ball. Compare fly (verb (regular)) and line (verb).

  8. To place something on the ground.

    transitive
  9. To run aground; to strike the bottom and remain fixed.

    intransitive
    The ship grounded on the bar.
  10. To found; to fix or set, as on a foundation, reason, or principle; to furnish a ground for; to fix firmly.

  11. To cover with a ground, as a copper plate for etching, or as paper or other materials with a uniform tint as a preparation for ornament.

  12. To improve or focus the mental or emotional state of.

    transitive
    I ground myself with meditation.
  13. To complement a machine learning model with relevant information it was not trained on.

    transitive
Where this word comes from

Etymology tree Proto-Indo-European *gʰrem- Proto-Indo-European *-tus Proto-Germanic *grunduz Old English grund Middle English ground English ground From Middle English ground, from Old English grund, from Proto-West Germanic *grundu, from Proto-Germanic *grunduz. Cognate with West Frisian grûn, Dutch grond and German Grund. (to punish): Compare (to bring) down to earth, to come down to earth.

adj/ɡɹaʊnd/General-American, Received-Pronunciation/ɡɹʊnd/Northumbria
  1. Crushed, or reduced to small particles.

    not-comparable
    ground mustard seed
  2. Processed by grinding.

    not-comparable
    lenses of ground glass
Where this word comes from

Inflected form of grind. See also milled.

verb/ɡɹaʊnd/General-American, Received-Pronunciation/ɡɹʊnd/Northumbria
  1. simple past and past participle of grind

    form-of · participle · past
    I ground the coffee up nicely.
Where this word comes from

Inflected form of grind. See also milled.

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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.