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ENGLISH · A WORD WITH POSSIBILITIES

strand.

The shore or beach of the sea or ocean.

6 characters1 syllables approx.English language

Meaning & usage

noun/ˈstɹænd/Canada, General-American, Received-Pronunciation[ˈstɹ̝̊ʷænd] ~ [ˈst̠ɹ̠̊˔ʷænd]Canada, General-American, Received-Pronunciation/ˈstɹand/British, Northern-England, Southern, Standard[ˈstɹ̝̊ʷand]British, Northern-England, Southern, Standard
  1. The shore or beach of the sea or ocean.

    Grand Strand
  2. The shore or beach of a lake or river.

    archaic · dialectal · poetic
  3. A small brook or rivulet.

  4. A passage for water; gutter.

    Northern-England · Scotland · UK · dialectal
  5. A street.

Where this word comes from

* From Middle English strand, strond, from Old English strand (“strand, sea-shore, shore”), from Proto-West Germanic *strand, from Proto-Germanic *strandō (“edge, rim, shore”), from Proto-Indo-European *(s)trAnt- (“strand, border, field”), from Proto-Indo-European *sterh₃- (“to broaden, spread out”). Cognate with West Frisian strân, German Strand (“beach”), Danish, Dutch, Norwegian Bokmål, Norwegian Nynorsk, and Swedish strand (“beach”), Faroese strond (“beach”), Icelandic strönd (“beach”). * (street): Perhaps from the similarity of shape.

verb/ˈstɹænd/Canada, General-American, Received-Pronunciation[ˈstɹ̝̊ʷænd] ~ [ˈst̠ɹ̠̊˔ʷænd]Canada, General-American, Received-Pronunciation/ˈstɹand/British, Northern-England, Southern, Standard[ˈstɹ̝̊ʷand]British, Northern-England, Southern, Standard
  1. To run aground; to beach.

    transitive
  2. To leave (someone) in a difficult situation; to abandon or desert.

    figuratively · transitive
  3. To leave (someone) in a difficult situation; to abandon or desert. To cause the third out of an inning to be made, leaving a runner on base.

    figuratively · transitive
    Jones pops up; that's going to strand a pair.
  4. To leave an element (e.g., an adposition) without its complement adjacent to it.

    transitive
Where this word comes from

* From Middle English strand, strond, from Old English strand (“strand, sea-shore, shore”), from Proto-West Germanic *strand, from Proto-Germanic *strandō (“edge, rim, shore”), from Proto-Indo-European *(s)trAnt- (“strand, border, field”), from Proto-Indo-European *sterh₃- (“to broaden, spread out”). Cognate with West Frisian strân, German Strand (“beach”), Danish, Dutch, Norwegian Bokmål, Norwegian Nynorsk, and Swedish strand (“beach”), Faroese strond (“beach”), Icelandic strönd (“beach”). * (street): Perhaps from the similarity of shape.

noun/ˈstɹænd/Canada, General-American, Received-Pronunciation[ˈstɹ̝̊ʷænd] ~ [ˈst̠ɹ̠̊˔ʷænd]Canada, General-American, Received-Pronunciation/ˈstɹand/British, Northern-England, Southern, Standard[ˈstɹ̝̊ʷand]British, Northern-England, Southern, Standard
  1. Each of the strings which, twisted together, make up a yarn, rope or cord.

  2. A string.

  3. An individual length of any fine, string-like substance.

    strand of spaghetti
    strand of hair
  4. A group of wires, usually twisted or braided.

  5. A series of programmes on a particular theme or linked subject.

  6. An element in a composite whole; a sequence of linked events or facts; a logical thread.

    figuratively
  7. A nucleotide chain.

  8. A specialization of a senior high school track.

    Philippines · formal
  9. Synonym of track.

    Philippines · informal
Where this word comes from

Origin uncertain. Cognate with Scots stran, strawn, strand (“strand”). Perhaps the same as strand ("rivulet, stream, gutter"; see Etymology 1 above); or from Middle English *stran, from Old French estran (“a rope, cord”), from Middle High German stren, strene (“skein, strand”), from Old High German streno, from Proto-West Germanic *strenō, from Proto-Germanic *strinô (“strip, strand”), from Proto-Indo-European *strēy-, *ster- (“strip, line, streak, ray, stripe, row”); related to Dutch streng (“skein, hank of thread, strand, string”), German Strähne (“skein, hank of thread, strand of hair”). Compare also Old High German stranga (“strand of hair”), modern German Strang (“strand, thread, cord”).

verb/ˈstɹænd/Canada, General-American, Received-Pronunciation[ˈstɹ̝̊ʷænd] ~ [ˈst̠ɹ̠̊˔ʷænd]Canada, General-American, Received-Pronunciation/ˈstɹand/British, Northern-England, Southern, Standard[ˈstɹ̝̊ʷand]British, Northern-England, Southern, Standard
  1. To break a strand of (a rope).

    transitive
  2. To form by uniting strands.

    transitive
Where this word comes from

Origin uncertain. Cognate with Scots stran, strawn, strand (“strand”). Perhaps the same as strand ("rivulet, stream, gutter"; see Etymology 1 above); or from Middle English *stran, from Old French estran (“a rope, cord”), from Middle High German stren, strene (“skein, strand”), from Old High German streno, from Proto-West Germanic *strenō, from Proto-Germanic *strinô (“strip, strand”), from Proto-Indo-European *strēy-, *ster- (“strip, line, streak, ray, stripe, row”); related to Dutch streng (“skein, hank of thread, strand, string”), German Strähne (“skein, hank of thread, strand of hair”). Compare also Old High German stranga (“strand of hair”), modern German Strang (“strand, thread, cord”).

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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.