asunder

Merriam-Webster's Word of the Day

Merriam-Webster

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🗓️ 14 August 2023

⏱️ 2 minutes

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Summary

Merriam-Webster's Word of the Day for August 14, 2023 is:

asunder • \uh-SUN-der\ • adverb or adjective

Asunder is most often used as an adverb—often with a verb such as tear or pull—to mean "apart" or "into pieces." It is more rarely used as an adjective meaning "apart from each other," as in "he stood with his legs wide asunder."

// The park was torn asunder by yesterday's microburst, and many of its trails have been blocked by fallen trees.

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Examples:

"House of the Dragon chronicles the events leading up to and during the Dance of the Dragons, the name given by the poets of Westeros to a gruesome civil war that tore House Targaryen asunder." — Nick Romano, EW.com, 11 Aug. 2022

Did you know?

To get to the root of today’s word, it helps to take it apart and focus on the sunder. You see, asunder comes from the verb sunder, which means "to break apart" or "to become parted, disunited, or severed." Both words come from the Old English word sundor, meaning "apart." The adverbial "into parts" sense of asunder is often used in the phrase "tear asunder," which can be used both literally (as in "fabric torn asunder") and, more often, figuratively (as in "a community torn asunder by the dispute"). The adjectival "apart from each other" sense can be found in the phrase "poles asunder," used to describe two things that are as vastly far apart as the poles of the Earth.

Transcript

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0:00.0	It's Maryam Webster's Word of the Day for August 14th.
0:11.5	Today's word is a sunder spelled ASUNDR.
0:17.5	A sunder is an adverb or an adjective.
0:20.3	It's most often used as an adverb, often with a verb, such as tear or pull, to mean a
0:26.1	part or into pieces.
0:28.9	It's more rarely used as an adjective, meaning, apart from each other, as in he stood with
0:34.6	his legs wide asunder.
0:37.4	Here's the word used in a sentence from EW.com by Nick Romano.
0:42.6	House of the Dragon chronicles the events leading up to and during the dance of the dragons,
0:48.3	the name given by the poets of Westeros to a gruesome civil war that tore House of Tagarian
0:53.9	asunder.
0:55.8	To get to the root of today's word, it helps to take it apart and focus on the sunder.
1:01.8	You see, a sunder comes from the verb SUNDER, which means to break apart or to become parted,
1:07.5	disunited or severed.
1:09.5	Both words come from the old English word SUNDOR, meaning apart.
1:14.6	The adverbial into parts, sense of a sunder, is often used in the phrase tear a sunder,
1:21.0	which can be used both literally as in fabric torn a sunder, and more often figuratively,
1:27.0	as in a community torn a sunder by the dispute.
1:30.8	The adjectival, apart from each other, sense can be found in the phrase PULLS a SUNDER, used
1:37.0	to describe two things that are as vastly far apart as the PULLS of the Earth.
1:42.7	With your word of the day, I'm Peter Sakalowski.
1:49.5	Visit MarianWebster.com today for definitions, wordplay, and trending word lookups.
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