sword

A long bladed weapon with a grip and typically a pommel and crossguard (together forming a hilt), which is designed to cut, stab, slash and/or hack.

Noun

  1. A long bladed weapon with a grip and typically a pommel and crossguard (together forming a hilt), which is designed to cut, stab, slash and/or hack.
    • He took out his sword and stabbed the man in the stomach.
    • Malicious tunges, though they have no bones, Are ſharper then ſwordes, ſturdier then ſtones. - c. 1515–1516, John Skelton, Againſt venemous tongues enpoyſoned with ſclaunder and falſe detractions &c., published 1568:
    • Unsheathe your sword and dub him presently. - c. 1591–1592 (date written), William Shakespeare, “The Third Part of Henry the Sixt, […]”, in Mr. William Shakespeares Comedies, Histories, & Tragedies […] (First Folio),...
  2. A suit in certain playing card decks, particularly those used in Spain and Italy, or those used for divination.

    1. A card of this suit.

  3. One of the end bars by which the lay of a hand loom is suspended.
  4. Violence; military might.

Origin

Inherited from West Midland Middle English sword (swerd in most dialects), from Old English sweord (“sword”), from Proto-West Germanic *swerd (“sword”), from Proto-Germanic *swerdą (“sword”), possibly from Proto-Indo-European *seh₂w- (“sharp”). Cognates Cognate with North Frisian Swērt, Swiirt, swörd (“sword”), Saterland Frisian Swid, Swäid (“sword”), West Frisian swurd (“sword”), Dutch zwaard (“sword”), German Schwert (“sword”), Luxembourgish Schwäert (“sword”), Vilamovian świert (“sword”), Yiddish שווערד (shverd, “sword”), Danish sværd (“sword”), Faroese svørð (“sword”), Icelandic sverð (“sword”), Norn svird (“small longish object”), Norwegian Bokmål sverd (“sword”), Norwegian Nynorsk sverd, svørd (“sword”), Swedish svärd (“sword”); also Belarusian све́рдзел (svjérdzjel, “drill, drill bit”), Bulgarian свре́дел (svrédel, “drill, drill bit”), Czech svider (“drill bit”), Polish świder...

Forms

swords swerd sweard swoord swoorde sworde

Synonyms

sword

Hypernyms

artifact weapon

Hyponyms

sica Harpe dirk kopis gladius spatha Xiphos falcata makhaira rhomphaia arming sword Baselard Falchion Shashka Viking sword Curtana Szabla Zweihänder Katzbalger claymore cinquedea dussack longsword estoc

Related

blade

Derived

Amazon sword arming sword at half-sword backsword balisword bastard sword bearing sword broadsword broad sword cloak-and-sworder coin-sword court sword double-edged sword dual-edged sword fall on one's sword flaming sword flesh one's maiden sword greatsword hunting sword longsword long sword magic sword measure swords with microsword

Verb

  1. To stab or cut with a sword

Forms

swords swording sworded swerd sweard swoord swoorde sworde