What does SWORD mean?

Definitions for SWORD
sɔrd, soʊrdsword

This dictionary definitions page includes all the possible meanings, example usage and translations of the word SWORD.

Princeton's WordNet

  1. sword, blade, brand, steelnoun

    a cutting or thrusting weapon that has a long metal blade and a hilt with a hand guard

Wiktionary

  1. swordnoun

    A long-bladed weapon having a handle and sometimes a hilt and designed to stab, cut or slash.

  2. swordnoun

    Someone paid to handle a sword.

  3. swordnoun

    A suit in the minor arcana in tarot.

  4. swordnoun

    A card of this suit.

  5. Etymology: From sword, swerd, from sweord, from swerdan, from su̯r̥dhom, from swer-. Cognate with swerd, sword, swird, swurd, zwaard, sweerd, Schwert, svärd, sverð, Old Church Slavonic.

Samuel Johnson's Dictionary

  1. SWORDnoun

    Etymology: sweord , Saxon; sweerd, Dutch.

    Old unhappy traitor, the sword is out
    That must destroy thee. William Shakespeare, King Lear.

    Each man took his sword, and slew all the males. Gen.

    Euryalus is the only peer that is described with a sword, which he gives to Ulysses to repair his injury. William Broome.

    The sword without, and terrour within. Deut. xxxii. 25.

    This I, her sword bearer, do carry,
    For civil deed and military. Hudibras.

Wikipedia

  1. Sword

    A sword is an edged, bladed weapon intended for manual cutting or thrusting. Its blade, longer than a knife or dagger, is attached to a hilt and can be straight or curved. A thrusting sword tends to have a straighter blade with a pointed tip. A slashing sword is more likely to be curved and to have a sharpened cutting edge on one or both sides of the blade. Many swords are designed for both thrusting and slashing. The precise definition of a sword varies by historical epoch and geographic region. Historically, the sword developed in the Bronze Age, evolving from the dagger; the earliest specimens date to about 1600 BC. The later Iron Age sword remained fairly short and without a crossguard. The spatha, as it developed in the Late Roman army, became the predecessor of the European sword of the Middle Ages, at first adopted as the Migration Period sword, and only in the High Middle Ages, developed into the classical arming sword with crossguard. The word sword continues the Old English, sweord.The use of a sword is known as swordsmanship or, in a modern context, as fencing. In the early modern period, western sword design diverged into two forms, the thrusting swords and the sabres. Thrusting swords such as the rapier and eventually the smallsword were designed to impale their targets quickly and inflict deep stab wounds. Their long and straight yet light and well balanced design made them highly maneuverable and deadly in a duel but fairly ineffective when used in a slashing or chopping motion. A well aimed lunge and thrust could end a fight in seconds with just the sword's point, leading to the development of a fighting style which closely resembles modern fencing. The sabre and similar blades such as the cutlass were built more heavily and were more typically used in warfare. Built for slashing and chopping at multiple enemies, often from horseback, the sabre's long curved blade and slightly forward weight balance gave it a deadly character all its own on the battlefield. Most sabres also had sharp points and double-edged blades, making them capable of piercing soldier after soldier in a cavalry charge. Sabres continued to see battlefield use until the early 20th century. The US Navy kept tens of thousands of sturdy cutlasses in their armory well into World War II and many were issued to Marines in the Pacific as jungle machetes. Non-European weapons classified as swords include single-edged weapons such as the Middle Eastern scimitar, the Chinese Dao and the related Japanese katana. The Chinese jiàn 剑 is an example of a non-European double-edged sword, like the European models derived from the double-edged Iron Age sword.

ChatGPT

  1. sword

    A sword is a long-bladed weapon intended for slashing or thrusting, typically composed of a blade and a hilt. It is often used in historical, military, or ceremonial contexts. Swords are usually made of metal and they have been used in various cultures throughout history for combat, duels, and executions.

Webster Dictionary

  1. Swordnoun

    an offensive weapon, having a long and usually sharp/pointed blade with a cutting edge or edges. It is the general term, including the small sword, rapier, saber, scimiter, and many other varieties

  2. Swordnoun

    hence, the emblem of judicial vengeance or punishment, or of authority and power

  3. Swordnoun

    destruction by the sword, or in battle; war; dissension

  4. Swordnoun

    the military power of a country

  5. Swordnoun

    one of the end bars by which the lay of a hand loom is suspended

  6. Etymology: [OE. swerd, AS. sweord; akin to OFries. swerd, swird, D. zwaard, OS. swerd, OHG. swert, G. schwert, Icel. sver, Sw. svrd, Dan. svaerd; of uncertain origin.]

Wikidata

  1. Sword

    A sword is a bladed weapon used primarily for cutting or thrusting. The precise definition of the term varies with the historical epoch or the geographical region under consideration. A sword in the most narrow sense consists of a straight blade with two edges and a hilt. However, in nearly every case, the term may also be used to refer to weapons with a single edge. The word sword comes from the Old English sweord, cognate to swert, Old Norse sverð, from a Proto-Indo-European root *swer- "to wound, to cut". Non-European weapons called "sword" include single-edged weapons such as the Middle Eastern saif, the Chinese dao and the related Japanese katana. The Chinese jian is an example of a non-European double-edged sword, like the European models derived from the double-edged Iron Age sword. Historically, the sword developed in the Bronze Age, evolving from the dagger; the earliest specimens date to ca. 1600 BC. The Iron Age sword remained fairly short and without a crossguard. The spatha as it developed in the Late Roman army became the predecessor of the European sword of the Middle Ages, at first adopted as the Migration period sword, and only in the High Middle Ages developed into the classical arming sword with crossguard.

Military Dictionary and Gazetteer

  1. sword

    A well-known weapon of war, the introduction of which dates beyond the ken of history. It may be defined as a blade of steel, having one or two edges, set in a hilt, and used with a motion of the whole arm. Damascus and Toledo blades have been brought to such perfection, that the point can be made to touch the hilt and to fly back to its former position. In the last century every gentleman wore a sword; now the use of the weapon is almost confined to purposes of war. Among the forms of the sword are the rapier, cutlass, broadsword, scimiter, sabre, etc.

Surnames Frequency by Census Records

  1. SWORD

    According to the U.S. Census Bureau, Sword is ranked #9997 in terms of the most common surnames in America.

    The Sword surname appeared 3,225 times in the 2010 census and if you were to sample 100,000 people in the United States, approximately 1 would have the surname Sword.

    93% or 3,000 total occurrences were White.
    2.6% or 85 total occurrences were Black.
    1.9% or 63 total occurrences were of Hispanic origin.
    1.4% or 45 total occurrences were of two or more races.
    0.7% or 25 total occurrences were Asian.
    0.2% or 7 total occurrences were American Indian or Alaskan Native.

Matched Categories

British National Corpus

  1. Nouns Frequency

    Rank popularity for the word 'SWORD' in Nouns Frequency: #1938

How to pronounce SWORD?

How to say SWORD in sign language?

Numerology

  1. Chaldean Numerology

    The numerical value of SWORD in Chaldean Numerology is: 4

  2. Pythagorean Numerology

    The numerical value of SWORD in Pythagorean Numerology is: 7

Examples of SWORD in a Sentence

  1. Claudia Mendez:

    It's a double-edged sword just because Sara Cromer never want to be in this place, but to hear that it's even being acknowledged is, in a sense, a relief.

  2. Christopher Heywood:

    [A] literary feat of objective narration by an Afrikaner writer was Sword in the Sand (1969), Johannes Meintjes’ narration of Gideon Scheepers’ death by summary trial and execution. In Meintjes’ hands, history enters the realm of epic narrative

  3. Gordon William Allport:

    So many tangles in life are ultimately hopeless that we have no appropriate sword other than laughter.

  4. Kirby Smart:

    They’ve got really good skill players on the outside, they know how to use those skill players, they put them in different positions, change things up. Brian Robinson, seems like he’s been there for 100 years and he is physical, runs with purpose, intent, a traditional Alabama back. They do a good job, especially against Cincinnati of committing to the run. It’s a double-edged sword. You do too much of this, they can hurt you.

  5. R Chamberlain:

    There is not half so much danger in the desperate sword of a known foe as in the smooth insinuations of a pretended friend.

Popularity rank by frequency of use

SWORD#1#6792#10000

Translations for SWORD

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"SWORD." Definitions.net. STANDS4 LLC, 2024. Web. 24 Apr. 2024. <https://www.definitions.net/definition/SWORD>.

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