Word.ws English Dictionary

zounds

/zuːndz/

zounds interjection: expressing anger, surprise, assertion etc.

Interjection

  1. (dated, minced oath) Expressing anger, surprise, assertion etc.
    • 'Zounds, a dog, a rat, a mouse, a cat, to scratch a man to death!c. 1591–1595 (date written), William Shakespeare, “The Tragedie of Romeo and Ivliet”, in Mr. William Shakespeares Comedies, Histories, & Tragedies […] (First Folio), London: […] Isaac Iaggard, and...
    • Bounds, mounds, lounds, founds, kounds, downds, rounds, pounds, zounds! — hounds — ha! hounds — I have it.1870, R.M. Ballantyne, The Floating Light of the Goodwin Sands

zounds meaning in Urdu

zounds in Urdu

خدا را

Synonyms of zounds

Forms of zounds

alternative form'zounds

Origin of zounds

Minced form of God's wounds, with reference to the wounds from Christ's crucifixion. Compare strewth, blimey, gadzooks, 'sblood, crikey.

Words that rhyme with zounds

Questions about zounds

What does zounds mean?
Zounds means expressing anger, surprise, assertion etc.
What is zounds in Urdu?
Zounds in Urdu is خدا را. See Zounds meaning in Urdu.
What part of speech is zounds?
Zounds is an interjection.
How do you pronounce zounds?
Zounds is pronounced /zuːndz/.

Words near zounds in the dictionary

  1. zoukify
  2. zoukifying
  3. zouking
  4. zouks
  5. Zouna
  6. zounds
  7. zourkhaneh
  8. zourkhanehs
  9. zournas
  10. zournases
  11. Zoutpansberg

Source and license

Adapted from Wiktionary: zounds (page history and authors); zounds (Urdu Wiktionary) (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.

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Pronunciation audio from Wikimedia Commons, each file under its own free license: LL-Q1860 (eng)-Vealhurl-zounds.wav.

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