sprain
/spɹeɪn/
sprain verb: to weaken, as a joint, ligament, or muscle, by sudden and excessive exertion, as by wrenching; to overstrain, or stretch injuriously, but without luxation.
Verb
sprain (third-person singular simple present sprains, present participle spraining, simple past and past participle sprained)
- To weaken, as a joint, ligament, or muscle, by sudden and excessive exertion, as by wrenching; to overstrain, or stretch injuriously, but without luxation
- He sprained his knee after falling off the bicycle.
- Hi! I suppose you're expecting the Roadrunner! Well, he sprained a giblet cornering a sharp coive the other day, uh, so, uh, I'm standing in for him.1963 June 8, Hare-Breadth Hurry, spoken by Bugs Bunny
Noun
sprain (plural sprains)
sprain meaning in Hindi, Tamil, Urdu and Bengali
sprain in Hindi
- act or result of spraining
- मोच moc
sprain in Tamil
- to weaken a joint, ligament, or muscle
- சுளுக்கு cuḷukku
- act or result of spraining
- சுளுக்கு cuḷukku
sprain in Urdu
- sprain
- لچک lacak
sprain in Bengali
- মচকানি, পেশীর টান
More languagesFewer languages
- sprain in Kannada
- ಇಲುಕು, ಉಳುಕಿಸಿಕೊಳ್ಳು, ಉಳುಕಿಸು, ಉಳುಕು
- sprain in Sinhala
- උළුක්කුව uḷukkuwa
- sprain in Tagalog
- malisok
- sprain in Arabic
- اِلْتِوَاء iltiwāʔ
Examples of sprain in a sentence
- Due to a left ankle sprain, the basketball player did not dress for the game against Indiana.
- We're not talking about paper cuts or sprains here — we're talking about trauma.
- It was a cop-out to say he couldn't sign the petition because he sprained his wrist.
Synonyms of sprain
Forms of sprain
| Verb | |
|---|---|
| third-person singular present | sprains |
| present participle | spraining |
| past participle | sprained |
| past | sprained |
| Noun | |
| plural | sprains |
Origin of sprain
Origin unknown. Noun attested since 1601; verb attested 1622. Possibly borrowed from Middle French espraindre (“to squeeze or press out”), from Latin exprimere (“to squeeze out, express”), in which case cognate to express.
Words that rhyme with sprain
48 more rhymesFewer rhymes
- drain
- pane
- gain
- main
- sustain
- vein
- entertain
- skein
- Wayne
- abstain
- bane
- campaign
- champagne
- crane
- entrain
- fain
- insane
- maine
- pain
- plane
- stain
- wane
- Aquitaine
- ascertain
- chicane
- contain
- detain
- explain
- maintain
- mundane
- obtain
- refrain
- remain
- vane
- amain
- arcane
- Blaine
- complain
- deign
- detrain
- distrain
- kane
- ordain
- pertain
- profane
- public domain
- reign
- swain
Questions about sprain
- What does sprain mean?
- Sprain means to weaken, as a joint, ligament, or muscle, by sudden and excessive exertion, as by wrenching; to overstrain, or stretch injuriously, but without luxation.
- What is sprain in Hindi?
- Sprain in Hindi is मोच (moc). See Sprain meaning in Hindi.
- What part of speech is sprain?
- Sprain can be a verb or a noun.
- How do you pronounce sprain?
- Sprain is pronounced /spɹeɪn/.
- What is the past tense of sprain?
- The past tense of sprain is sprained.
Words near sprain in the dictionary
Source and license
Adapted from Wiktionary: sprain (page history and authors); لچک (Urdu) (page history and authors); sprain (Bengali Wiktionary) (page history and authors); sprain (Kannada Wiktionary) (page history and authors); උළුක්කුව (Sinhala) (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: LL-Q1860 (eng)-Vealhurl-sprain.wav.
Cite this entry: “sprain.” Word.ws, https://word.ws/sprain. Based on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.