Word.ws English Dictionary

band

[beənd] ~ [bɛənd]UK/bænd/

band noun: a strip of material wrapped around things to hold them together. Also the ellipsis of band cell.

band: a strip of material wrapped around things to hold them together
Image: Sin Nada, Public domain, via Wikimedia Commons

Noun (1)

band (plural bands)

  1. A strip of material wrapped around things to hold them together.
    • The Jones man was looking at her hard. Now he reached into the hatch of his vest and fetched out a couple of cigars, everlasting big ones, with gilt bands on them.1913, Joseph C[rosby] Lincoln, chapter X, in Mr. Pratt’s Patients, New York, N.Y.; London: D[aniel] Appleton and Company, →OCLC
  2. A narrow strip of cloth or other material on clothing, to bind, strengthen, or ornament it.
    • band and gusset and seam1843, Thomas Hood, The Song of the Shirt
  3. A strip along the spine of a book where the pages are attached.
  4. A belt or strap that is part of a machine.
  5. A long strip of material, color, etc, that is different from the surrounding area.
    • sandstone with bands of shale
    • [...] at each station the train times are not shown in one all-embracing chronological list, but in two separate sheets, one with a conspicuous band of yellow detailing westbound departures and the other with a similar band of blue the eastbound trains.1960 December, “The Glasgow Suburban Electrification is opened”, in Trains Illustrated, page 714
  6. A continuous tablet, stripe, or series of ornaments, as of carved foliage, of colour, or of brickwork.
  7. In Gothic architecture, the moulding, or suite of mouldings, which encircles the pillars and small shafts.
  8. That which serves as the means of union or connection between persons; a tie.
    • For that heroic band—those children of the furnace who, in regions like Texas and Tennessee, maintained their fidelity through terrible trials—we of the North felt for them, and profoundly we honor them.1866, Herman Melville, Battle-Pieces and Aspects of the War, Supplement
  9. A linen collar or ruff worn in the 16th and 17th centuries.
  10. (in plural) Two strips of linen hanging from the neck in front as part of a clerical, legal, or academic dress.
  11. A part of the electromagnetic spectrum.
    1. A designated range of radio frequencies used for wireless communication.
  12. A group of energy levels in a solid state material.
    • valence band; conduction band
Show 5 more meaningsShow fewer meanings
  1. (obsolete) A bond.
    • OLd Iohn of Gaunt, time-honoured Lancaſter,
      Haſt thou according to thy oath and band
      Brought hither Henry Herford thy bold ſon:
      Heere to make good yͤ boiſtrous late appeale,
      Which then our leyſure would not let vs heare,
      Againſt the Duke of Norfolke, Thomas Mowbray?1595 December 9 (first known performance), William Shakespeare, “The Life and Death of King Richard the Second”, in Mr. William Shakespeares Comedies, Histories, & Tragedies: Published According to...
  2. (obsolete) Pledge; security.
    • He sent to her his basenet as a faithfull band.1596, Edmund Spenser, “Book VI, Canto I”, in The Faerie Queene. […], London: […] [John Wolfe] for William Ponsonbie, →OCLC
  3. (US, especially) A ring, such as a wedding ring (wedding band), or a ring put on a bird's leg to identify it.
  4. Any distinguishing line formed by chromatography, electrophoresis etc
  5. (in plural, often, slang) A wad of money totaling $1K, held together by a band; (by extension) $1000, a grand; (by extension) money
    • She my trap queen, let her hit the bando / We be countin' up, watch how far them bands go2014, “Trap Queen”, performed by Fetty Wap

Verb (1)

band (third-person singular simple present bands, present participle banding, simple past and past participle banded)

  1. (transitive) To fasten with a band.
    • As he spake, his eyes rested on the graves below. "Yes," muttered the youth, "they are sufficient answer; they are indeed the end of all human hope."
      Mechanically he turned from one to another. Some were recently banded down with osiers, and the grass was varied with primrose roots; on some the...1837, L[etitia] E[lizabeth] L[andon], “A Poet’s Midnight”, in Ethel Churchill: Or, The Two Brides. […], volume I, London: Henry Colburn, […], →OCLC, page 54
    • "Come, come, 'Orace," said the inspector, leisurely elastic-banding his book and putting it away, "you aren't supposed to be fishing down that hole, you know. Is it O.K. there?"1934, Ernest Bramah, The Bravo of London
  2. (transitive) To fasten an identifying band around the leg of (a bird).

Noun (2)

band (plural bands)

  1. A group of musicians who perform together as an ensemble; sometimes, such a group working for a professional recording artist.
    • musical band
    • session band
  2. A type of orchestra originally playing janissary music; an instance of this type.
  3. A group of people loosely united for a common purpose, such as a band of thieves.
    • But in the mean time Robin Hood and his band lived quietly in Sherwood Forest, without showing their faces abroad, for Robin knew that it would not be wise for him to be seen in the neighborhood of Nottingham, those in authority being very wroth with him.1883, Howard Pyle, “Robin Hood Turns Butcher”, in The Merry Adventures of Robin Hood […], New York, N.Y.: […] Charles Scribner’s Sons […], →OCLC, part second, page 47
    • "My third command to the Winged Monkeys," said Glinda, "shall be to carry you to your forest. Then, having used up the powers of the Golden Cap, I shall give it to the King of the Monkeys, that he and his band may thereafter be free for evermore."1900 May 17, L[yman] Frank Baum, “The Good Witch Grants Dorothy’s Wish”, in The Wonderful Wizard of Oz, Chicago, Ill.; New York, N.Y.: Geo[rge] M[elvin] Hill Co., →OCLC, page 256
  4. A small group of people living in a simple society, contrasted with tribes, chiefdoms, and nations.

Verb (2)

band (third-person singular simple present bands, present participle banding, simple past and past participle banded)

  1. (intransitive) To group together for a common purpose; to confederate.
    • And when it was day, certaine of the Iewes banded together, […]1611, The Holy Bible, […] (King James Version), London: […] Robert Barker, […], →OCLC, Acts 23:12, signature O2, verso, column 2
  2. (transitive) To group (students) together by perceived ability; to stream.

Proper noun capitalized: Band

Band (plural Bands)

  1. A surname from German.

Also used as

band is also the ellipsis of band cell.

band is also the ellipsis of marching band.

band is also the ellipsis of band government.

band is also the simple past and past participle of bind.

band is also the obsolete form of bandy.

band meaning in Hindi, Marathi, Telugu and Malayalam

band in Hindi

group of musicians
बैंड baiṇḍ

band in Marathi

group of musicians
बँड bĕṇḍa

band in Telugu

strip of material wrapped around things to hold them together
మోపుతాడు mōputāḍu
group of musicians
మేళము mēḷamu

band in Malayalam

ബാൻഡ്
More languagesFewer languages
band in Kannada
ಬ್ಯಾಂಡ್, ವಾದ್ಯವೃಂದ
band in Odia
ବ୍ଯ଼ାଣ୍ଡ, ବ୍ଯ଼ାଣ୍ଡ୍
band in Nepali
ब्यान्ड, ब्याण्ड, ब्यान्डमा
band in Tagalog
banda
band in Arabic
فِرْقَة firqa, فرقة firga
band in Malay
bebat, kugiran, kumpulan gitar rancak, pancaragam
band in Indonesian
grup
band in Persian
بند band, گروه goruh
band in Thai
วงดนตรี wong-don-dtrii, วง wong
band in Vietnamese
băng, dải, bó, buộc dải
band in Myanmar
အတန့် a.tan., တီးဝိုင်း ti:wuing:, ဘင် bhang

Examples of band in a sentence

  • They're mainly a hard rock band, but their new album sounds kinda country to me.
  • This is a new scratch on my car! The band just released a new album.
  • The band played their hit song to the delight of the fans.

All 40 example sentences with band

Synonyms of band

Forms of band

Noun
pluralbands
Verb
third-person singular presentbands
present participlebanding
past participlebanded
pastbanded
Proper noun
pluralBands

Past tense of band: banded

Plural of band: bands

Origin of band

Inherited from Middle English band (also bond), from Old English beand, bænd, bend (“bond, chain, fetter, band, ribbon, ornament, chaplet, crown”), from Proto-Germanic *bandą, *bandiz (“band, fetter”), from Proto-Indo-European *bʰendʰ- (“to tie, bind”). Middle English band reinforced by Old French bande. Cognate with Dutch band, German Band, Danish bånd, Swedish band, Icelandic band (“band”). Related to bond, bind, bend.

Derived from Middle English band, from Old French bande, from Old Occitan banda (“regiment of troops”), perhaps from Frankish *bend, from Proto-Germanic *bandiz, from Proto-Indo-European *bʰendʰ- (“to tie; bond, band”). Compare German Bande (“band”).

See the etymology of the corresponding lemma form.

Words formed from band

Phrases with band

114 more phrasesFewer phrases

Words that rhyme with band

48 more rhymesFewer rhymes

Questions about band

What does band mean?
Band means a strip of material wrapped around things to hold them together.
What is band in Hindi?
Band in Hindi is बैंड (baiṇḍ). See Band meaning in Hindi.
What part of speech is band?
Band can be a noun, a verb or a proper noun.
How do you pronounce band?
Band is pronounced /bænd/ (UK).
What is the plural of band?
The plural of band is bands.

Words near band in the dictionary

  1. bancroftiasis
  2. bancroftosis
  3. Bancrofts
  4. bancs
  5. Bancuro
  6. band
  7. band camp
  8. band camps
  9. band cell
  10. band cells
  11. band chief

Source and license

Adapted from Wiktionary: band (page history and authors); Band (page history and authors); band (Malayalam, IndicTrans2 machine translation) (model and license); band (Kannada, IndicTrans2 machine translation) (model and license); band (Odia, IndicTrans2 machine translation) (model and license); band (Nepali, IndicTrans2 machine translation) (model and license). Text available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 license. Word.ws reformatted the entry and added links. Wiktionary data of 2026-09-02.

Last updated:

Pronunciation audio from Wikimedia Commons, each file under its own free license: en-ca-band.opus, en-us-band.ogg.

Cite this entry: “band.” Word.ws, https://word.ws/band. Based on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.