Word.ws English Dictionary

cord

UK/ˈkɔːd/

More pronunciations (1)Fewer pronunciations

Australia/ˈkoːd/

cord noun: a long, thin, flexible length of twisted yarns (strands) of fibre (a rope, for example). Also the dated form of chord.

cord: a long, thin, flexible length of twisted yarns (strands) of fibre (a rope, for example)
Image: Rasbak, CC BY-SA 3.0, via Wikimedia Commons

Noun

cord (countable and uncountable, plural cords)

  1. (countable) A long, thin, flexible length of twisted yarns (strands) of fibre (a rope, for example).
    • The burglar tied up the victim with a cord.
    Synonyms:
    cable, twine
  2. (uncountable) Any quantity of such material when viewed as a mass or commodity.
    • He looped some cord around his fingers.
    • cord of spittle
    Synonyms:
    cordage
  3. A small flexible electrical conductor composed of wires insulated separately or in bundles and assembled together usually with an outer cover; the electrical cord of a lamp, sweeper ((US) vacuum cleaner), or other appliance.
    Synonyms:
    cable, flex
  4. A unit of measurement for firewood, equal to 128 cubic feet (4 × 4 × 8 feet), composed of logs and/or split logs four feet long and none over eight inches diameter. It is usually seen as a stack four feet high by eight feet long.
    • Unerringly impelling this dead, impregnable, uninjurable wall, and this most buoyant thing within; there swims behind it all a mass of tremendous life, only to be adequately estimated as piled wood is—by the cord; and all obedient to one volition, as the smallest insect.1851 November 14, Herman Melville, “The Battering-ram”, in Moby-Dick; or, The Whale, 1st American edition, New York, N.Y.: Harper & Brothers; London: Richard Bentley, →OCLC, page 376
    • 'If they buy three cords of birch logs,' said the witch, 'but they must be exact measure—and no bargaining about the price, and if they throw overboard the one cord of logs, piece by piece, when the first sea comes, and the other cord, piece by piece, when the second sea comes, and the third cord...1881, P. Chr. Asbjörnsen [i.e., Peter Christen Asbjørnsen], “Mackerel Trolling”, in H. L. Brækstad, transl., Round the Yule Log. Norwegian Folk and Fairy Tales, London: Sampson Low, Marston, Searle...
    1. (broadly, collective) A quantity of firewood or cut logs.
  5. (figuratively) Any influence by which persons are caught, held, or drawn, as if by a cord.
    • Clear-headed friend, whose joyful scorn, / Edged with sharp laughter, cuts atwain / The knots that tangle human creeds, / The wounding cords that bind and strain / The heart until it bleeds, […]1842, Alfred Tennyson, “To—”, in Poems. […], volume I, London: Edward Moxon, […], →OCLC, page 15
    • Every detail of the house and garden was familiar; a thousand cords of memory and affection drew him thither; but a stronger counter-motive prevailed.1900, Charles W[addell] Chesnutt, chapter I, in The House Behind the Cedars, Boston, Mass.; New York, N.Y.: Houghton, Mifflin and Company […], →OCLC
  6. Any structure having the appearance of a cord, especially a tendon or nerve.
    • spermatic cord; spinal cord; umbilical cord; vocal cords
    • Since spinal cord injury is associated with edema and changes in AQP4 expression, Ge and coworkers investigated the potential antiedema effect of epigallocatechin gallate and its underlying mechanism on a rat model of acute spinal cord injury.2015 August 4, Diana Fiorentini et al., “Polyphenols as Modulators of Aquaporin Family in Health and Disease”, in Oxidative Medicine and Cellular Longevity, volume 2015, →DOI

Verb

cord (third-person singular simple present cords, present participle cording, simple past and past participle corded)

  1. To furnish with cords.
  2. To tie or fasten with cords.
  3. To flatten a book during binding.
  4. To arrange (wood, etc.) in a pile for measurement by the cord.

Also used as

cord is also the dated form of chord.

cord is also the misspelling of chord.

cord meaning in Hindi, Odia, Assamese and Arabic

cord in Hindi

length of twisted strands
तार tār
wires surrounded by a coating, used to supply electricity
तार tār

cord in Odia

କର୍ଡ

cord in Assamese

length of twisted strands
জৰী zori

cord in Arabic

length of twisted strands
خَيْط ḵayṭ, حَبْل ḥabl
More languagesFewer languages
cord in Thai
เชือก chʉ̂ʉak

Examples of cord in a sentence

  • You can string these beads on to this cord to make a colorful necklace.
  • She bought a roll of black gaff to tape down the loose cords.
  • Many of the low-cost accessories (cords, chargers, etc) sold in the dollar store had spotty quality.

All 40 example sentences with cord

Synonyms of cord

Forms of cord

Noun
pluralcords
Verb
third-person singular presentcords
present participlecording
past participlecorded
pastcorded

Plural of cord: cords

Origin of cord

From Middle English corde, from Old French corde, from Latin chorda, from Ancient Greek χορδή (khordḗ, “string of gut, the string of a lyre”), from Proto-Indo-European *ǵʰerH- (“bowels, intestines”). Displaced native Old English sīma (“cord, rope”), sāl (“rope, cord, rein”), and sāda (“cord, halter, snare”). Doublet of chord and cuerda. More at yarn and hernia.

Words formed from cord

Phrases with cord

8 more phrasesFewer phrases

Words that rhyme with cord

40 more rhymesFewer rhymes

Questions about cord

What does cord mean?
Cord means a long, thin, flexible length of twisted yarns (strands) of fibre (a rope, for example).
What is cord in Hindi?
Cord in Hindi is तार (tār). See Cord meaning in Hindi.
What part of speech is cord?
Cord can be a noun or a verb.
How do you pronounce cord?
Cord is pronounced /ˈkɔːd/ (UK).
What is the plural of cord?
The plural of cord is cords.

Words near cord in the dictionary

  1. corculum
  2. corcur
  3. Corcyra
  4. Corcyraean
  5. Corcyraeans
  6. cord
  7. cord colitis syndrome
  8. cord factor
  9. cord grass
  10. cord grasses
  11. cord lacing

Source and license

Adapted from Wiktionary: cord (page history and authors); cord (Odia, 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-us-cord.ogg.

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