sand
[seənd] ~ [sɛənd]UK/sænd/
sand noun: rock that is ground more finely than gravel, but is not as fine as silt (more formally, see grain sizes chart), forming beaches and deserts and also used in construction. Also the ellipsis of sandpiper.
Noun
sand (usually uncountable, plural sands)
- Rock that is ground more finely than gravel, but is not as fine as silt (more formally, see grain sizes chart), forming beaches and deserts and also used in construction.
- For a spell we done pretty well. Then there came a reg'lar terror of a sou'wester same as you don't get one summer in a thousand, and blowed the shanty flat and ripped about half of the weir poles out of the sand.1913, Joseph C[rosby] Lincoln, chapter I, in Mr. Pratt’s Patients, New York, N.Y.; London: D[aniel] Appleton and Company, →OCLC
- “We are addicted to sand but don’t know it because we don’t buy it as individuals,” says Aurora Torres, […]2018, Neil Tweedie, “Is the world running out of sand? The truth behind stolen beaches and dredged islands”, in The Guardian
- A specific grade, type, or composition of sand.
- One sand was that used in cement testing with white well rounded smooth grains, passing through a 20-mesh sieve and retained on a 30-mesh sieve. The other was ordinary brown building sand, passing 40-mesh and retained on 60-mesh.1922, Harvey Whipple, Concrete, volumes 20-21, page 96
- A beach or other mass of sand.
- The Canadian tar sands are a promising source of oil.
- From east and south the danger was to be expected. Not from the uninhabited northern desert, not from the desolate sands of the unknown west, would it come.1892, James Yoxall, chapter 14, in The Lonely Pyramid
- Personal courage.
- You may say what you want to, but in my opinion she had more sand in her than any girl I ever see; in my opinion she was just full of sand.1884, Mark Twain, The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn
- He said, “I admire your sand but I believe you will find I am not liable for such claims. Let me say too that your valuation of the horse is high by about two hundred dollars.”1968, Charles Portis, True Grit
- Synonyms:
- grit
- A particle from 62.5 microns to 2 mm in diameter, following the Wentworth scale.
- A light beige colour, like that of typical sand.
- A single grain of sand.
- One sand another.
Not more resembles that sweet rosy lad1611 April (first recorded performance), William Shakespeare, “The Tragedie of Cymbeline”, in Mr. William Shakespeares Comedies, Histories, & Tragedies […] (First Folio), London: […] Isaac Iaggard...
- One sand another.
- A moment or interval of time; the term or extent of one's life (referring to the sand in an hourglass).
- The sands are numbered that make up my life.c. 1591–1592 (date written), William Shakespeare, “The Third Part of Henry the Sixt, […]”, in Mr. William Shakespeares Comedies, Histories, & Tragedies […] (First Folio), London: […] Isaac Iaggard...
- Cf. sands of time (idiom)
- Dried mucus in the eye's inner corner, perhaps left from sleep (sleepy sand).
- Sleep in your eyes, sleep crust, sand, eye gunk—whatever you call it, we all get it—that crusty stuff in the corners of your eyes when you wake up in the morning. "The medical term is 'rheum,' though you rarely hear it used," […]2018 January 3, Moran Eye Center, “Is That Morning 'Eye Gunk' Normal?”, in HealthFeed Blog, University of Utah Hospital, archived from the original on 02 Jan 2020
- "sand in [someone's] eyes" (idiom)
- Cf. Sandman, a mythical character in European folklore who puts people to sleep and encourages and inspires beautiful dreams by sprinkling magical sand onto their eyes.
- An excuse for tears.
- Cf. “Sand in My Eyes”, in TV Tropes, 1 March 2023 (last accessed): “Alternative Title(s): Something In My Eye”
Adjective
sand
- Of a light beige colour, like that of typical sand.
Verb
sand (third-person singular simple present sands, present participle sanding, simple past and past participle sanded)
- To abrade the surface of (something) with sand or sandpaper in order to smooth or clean it.
- To cover with sand.
- Sudden stopping, which could be effected easily by sanding the rails and reversing the driving-gear, was dangerous, because the train might telescope and overwhelm the engine.1938, Xavier Herbert, chapter IX, in Capricornia, New York: D. Appleton-Century, published 1943, page 141
- The golden domes of churches and the freshly sanded paths in the town gardens were a glaring yellow.1958, Boris Pasternak, chapter 4, in Max Hayward, Manya Harari, transl., Doctor Zhivago, New York: Pantheon, page 96
- To blot ink using sand.
- The officer wrote until he had finished, read over to himself what he had written, sanded it, and handed it to Defarge, with the words "In secret."1859, Charles Dickens, A Tale of Two Cities
Also used as
sand is also the ellipsis of sandpiper.
sand meaning in Hindi, Tamil, Marathi and Urdu
sand in Hindi
- finely ground rock
- रेत ret, बालू bālū
sand in Tamil
- finely ground rock
- மணல் maṇal
sand in Marathi
- finely ground rock
- वाळू vāḷū
- beach or other expanse of sand
- वाळू vāḷū
sand in Urdu
- finely ground rock
- ریت ret
More languagesFewer languages
- sand in Bengali
- বালু balu
- sand in Telugu
- ఇసుక isuka
- sand in Malayalam
- മണൽ maṇal
- sand in Kannada
- ಮರಳು maraḷu
- sand in Punjabi
- ਰੇਤ ret, ਬਾਲੂ bālū
- sand in Gujarati
- રેતી retī
- sand in Odia
- ବାଲି bāli, ବାଲୁକା bālukā
- sand in Sanskrit
- सिकता sikatā, वालुका vālukā, शीतला śītalā, वालक vālaka
- sand in Sinhala
- වැලි wæli
- sand in Assamese
- বালি bali
- sand in Nepali
- बालुवा bāluwā
- sand in Pashto
- شګه šᶕga, رېګ reg
- sand in Tagalog
- buhangin
- sand in Arabic
- رَمْل raml
- sand in Malay
- pasir, ramal
- sand in Indonesian
- pasir
- sand in Thai
- ทราย saai
- sand in Vietnamese
- cát
- sand in Myanmar
- သဲ sai:
Examples of sand in a sentence
- China’s hunger for sand is insatiable, its biggest dredging site at Lake Poyang produces 989,000 tonnes per day.2018, Neil Tweedie, “Is the world running out of sand? The truth behind stolen beaches and dredged islands”, in The Guardian:
- […] And, departing, leave behind us / Footprints on the sands of time […]1838 October, Henry Wadsworth Longfellow, “A Psalm of Life. […]”, in Voices of the Night, Cambridge, Mass.: […] John Owen, published 1839...
Synonyms of sand
Forms of sand
| Noun | |
|---|---|
| plural | sands |
| Verb | |
| third-person singular present | sands |
| present participle | sanding |
| past participle | sanded |
| past | sanded |
Origin of sand
Inherited from Middle English sond, sand, from Old English sand, from Proto-West Germanic *samd, from Proto-Germanic *samdaz. See also North Frisian sun, Sön, sönj (“sand”), Saterland Frisian Sound (“sand”), West Frisian sân (“sand”), Dutch zand (“sand”), German and Luxembourgish Sand (“sand”), Yiddish זאַמד (zamd, “sand”), Danish, Norwegian Bokmål, Norwegian Nynorsk, and Swedish sand (“sand”), Faroese and Icelandic sandur (“sand”), Latin sabulum (“sand, gravel”), Ancient Greek ἄμαθος (ámathos, “sand”), English dialectal samel (“sand bottom”), Old Irish do·essim (“to pour out”), Latin sentina (“bilge water”), Lithuanian sémti (“to scoop”), Ancient Greek ἀμάω (amáō, “to gather”), ἄμη (ámē, “water bucket”).
From Middle English sanden, from the noun (see above).
Words formed from sand
- African sand fox
- ant sand
- banded sand catshark
- belt-sand
- bituminous sand
- black sand
- Blundellsands
- Bolton-le-Sands
- brain sand
- bring sand to the beach
- build on sand
- built on sand
- Burgh by Sands
- bury one's head in the sand
- cover sand
- desand
- desert sand
- draw a line in the sand
- draw lines in the sand
- dunesand
- enough sense to pound sand into a rathole
- firesand
- Florida sand plum
- golden sand-eater
- gold sand
- Grange-over-Sands
- Great Sandy Desert
- Great Wall of Sand
- green sand
- greensand
- Halimeda sand
- head in the sand
- head-in-the-sand
- ironsand
- iron sand
- javelin sand boa
- kick sand in somebody's face
- kinetic sand
- line in the sand
- Maplin Sands
- Mojave sand-verbena
- molding sand
- naked sand rat
- oil sand
- oversand
- parting sand
- polymeric sand
- pound sand
- pound sand into a rathole
- purple leaf sand cherry
- put one's head in the sand
- quicksand
- red-banded sand wasp
- resand
- rope of sand
- running sand
- sandable
- sand and spinach
- sand apricot-vine
- sand art
Phrases with sand
- sand asp
- sand bar
- sand bee
- sand boa
- sand box
- sand bug
- sand cat
- Sand Cay
- sand dab
- sand dam
- sand eel
- sand fly
177 more phrasesFewer phrases
- sand fox
- sand hog
- sand off
- sand rat
- tar sand
- war sand
- wet sand
- sand band
- sand bars
- sand bass
- sand bath
- sand bean
- sand bear
- sand boas
- sand boil
- sand bugs
- sand cats
- Sand City
- sand cock
- sand crab
- sand dabs
- sand dart
- sand dome
- sand down
- sand drag
- sand dune
- sand eels
- sand flea
- Sand Hill
- sand hogs
- sand iron
- sand jack
- Sand Lake
- sand lark
- sand leek
- sand lily
- sand mice
- sand mole
- sand palm
- sand pear
- sand pine
- sand plum
- sand pump
- sand rail
- sand rats
- sand reed
- sand reel
- sand shoe
- sand shot
- sand slug
- sand spit
- sand star
- sand trap
- sand wasp
- sand wave
- sand bands
- sand baths
- Sand Beach
- sand beans
- sand bears
- sand boils
- sand boxes
- sand break
- sand buggy
- sand canal
- sand clock
- sand cocks
- sand crabs
- sand crack
- sand cress
- sand darts
- sand diver
- sand domes
- sand drags
- sand dunes
- sand fence
- sand fleas
- sand flies
- sand foxes
- sand grape
- sand irons
- sand jacks
- sand lance
- sand larks
- sand leeks
- sand mason
- sand moles
- sand motor
- sand mouse
- sand olive
- sand palms
- sand pears
- sand perch
- sand pines
- sand plums
- sand pumps
- sand puppy
- sand rails
- sand reels
- Sand Ridge
- sand sedge
- sand shark
- sand sheet
- sand shoes
- sand skink
- sand smelt
- sand snake
- sand spits
- sand stars
- sand storm
- sand table
- sand tiger
- sand timer
- sand traps
- sand viper
- sand wasps
- sand waves
- sand wedge
- sand yacht
- sharp sand
- shell sand
- pounds sand
- sand badger
- sand breaks
- sand canals
- sand cherry
- sand clocks
- sand cookie
- sand cracks
- sand crocus
- Sand Dancer
- sand daphne
- sand darter
- sand divers
- sand dollar
- sand duning
- sand engine
- sand fences
- sand goanna
- sand grapes
- sand grouse
- sand hopper
- sand hornet
- Sand Hutton
- sand lances
- sand lilies
- sand lizard
- sand martin
- sand masons
- sand monkey
- sand motors
- sand myrtle
- sand nigger
- sand olives
- Sand Papago
- sand pillar
- sand plover
- sand python
- sand runner
- sand saucer
- sand sedges
- sand sharks
- sand sheets
- sand shrimp
- sand skinks
- sand snakes
- sand storms
- sand tables
- sand tigers
- sand timers
- sand violet
- sand vipers
- sand wedges
- sand winner
- sand yachts
- silver sand
- sleepy sand
Words that rhyme with sand
48 more rhymesFewer rhymes
- overhand
- bestand
- gland
- secondhand
- unscanned
- disband
- grand
- offhand
- unmanned
- unplanned
- aband
- aland
- fanned
- firsthand
- lotus land
- lotusland
- misbrand
- planned
- redemand
- reland
- repand
- scanned
- shand
- tanned
- thirdhand
- withstand
- 2ndhand
- astrand
- at second hand
- banned
- counterdemand
- desand
- fand
- grande
- haircut band
- hand
- interstrand
- manned
- misunderstand
- multiplicand
- nonbrand
- operand
- overmanned
- overplanned
- panned
- preplanned
- rebrand
- replanned
Questions about sand
- What does sand mean?
- Sand means rock that is ground more finely than gravel, but is not as fine as silt (more formally, see grain sizes chart), forming beaches and deserts and also used in construction.
- What is sand in Hindi?
- Sand in Hindi is रेत (ret), बालू (bālū). See Sand meaning in Hindi.
- How do you use sand in a sentence?
- China’s hunger for sand is insatiable, its biggest dredging site at Lake Poyang produces 989,000 tonnes per day.
- What part of speech is sand?
- Sand can be a noun, an adjective or a verb.
- How do you pronounce sand?
- Sand is pronounced /sænd/ (UK).
- What is the plural of sand?
- The plural of sand is sands.
Words near sand in the dictionary
Source and license
Adapted from Wiktionary: sand (page history and authors). 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-sand.ogg.
Cite this entry: “sand.” Word.ws, https://word.ws/sand. Based on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.