cord
Language: English
Part of speech: noun
Pronunciation: ipa: /kɔɹd/
ipa: /kɔːd/
rhymes: -ɔː(ɹ)d
homophone: chord
homophone: cored (horse–hoarse merger)
homophone: cawed (non-rhotic)
Forms: form: cords
Etymology: From Middle English corde, from Old French corde, from Latin chorda, from Ancient Greek χορδή (khordḗ, “string of gut, the string of a lyre”), from Proto-Indo-European *ǵʰerH- (“bowels, intestines”)). Doublet of chord and cuerda. More at yarn and hernia.
Senses: examples: text: The burglar tied up the victim with a cord.
glosses: A long, thin, flexible length of twisted yarns (strands) of fibre (a rope, for example).
examples: text: He looped some cord around his fingers.
synonyms: cordage
glosses: Any quantity of such material when viewed as a mass or commodity.
glosses: A small flexible electrical conductor composed of wires insulated separately or in bundles and assembled together usually with an outer cover; the electrical cord of a lamp, sweeper ((US) vacuum cleaner), or other appliance.
examples: text: Unerringly impelling this dead, impregnable, uninjurable wall, and this most buoyant thing within; there swims behind it all a mass of tremendous life, only to be adequately estimated as piled wood is—by the cord; and all obedient to one volition, as the smallest insect.
ref: 1851 November 14, Herman Melville, “The Battering-ram”, in Moby-Dick; or, The Whale, 1st American edition, New York, N.Y.: Harper & Brothers; London: Richard Bentley, →OCLC, page 376:
text: 'If they buy three cords of birch logs,' said the witch, 'but they must be exact measure—and no bargaining about the price, and if they throw overboard the one cord of logs, piece by piece, when the first sea comes, and the other cord, piece by piece, when the second sea comes, and the third cord, piece by piece, when the third sea comes, then it's all over with us.'
ref: 1881, P. Chr. Asbjörnsen [i.e., Peter Christen Asbjørnsen], “Mackerel Trolling”, in H. L. Brækstad, transl., Round the Yule Log. Norwegian Folk and Fairy Tales, London: Sampson Low, Marston, Searle, & Rivington, →OCLC, page 187:
glosses: A unit of measurement for firewood, equal to 128 cubic feet (4 × 4 × 8 feet), composed of logs and/or split logs four feet long and none over eight inches diameter. It is usually seen as a stack four feet high by eight feet long.
examples: text: Clear-headed friend, whose joyful scorn, / Edged with sharp laughter, cuts atwain / The knots that tangle human creeds, / The wounding cords that bind and strain / The heart until it bleeds, […]
ref: 1842, Alfred Tennyson, “To—”, in Poems. […], volume I, London: Edward Moxon, […], →OCLC, page 15:
text: Every detail of the house and garden was familiar; a thousand cords of memory and affection drew him thither; but a stronger counter-motive prevailed.
ref: 1900, Charles W[addell] Chesnutt, chapter I, in The House Behind the Cedars, Boston, Mass.; New York, N.Y.: Houghton, Mifflin and Company […], →OCLC:
glosses: Any influence by which persons are caught, held, or drawn, as if by a cord.
examples: text: spermatic cord; spinal cord; umbilical cord; vocal cords
text: Since spinal cord injury is associated with edema and changes in AQP4 expression, Ge and coworkers investigated the potential antiedema effect of epigallocatechin gallate and its underlying mechanism on a rat model of acute spinal cord injury.
ref: 2015 August 4, Diana Fiorentini et al., “Polyphenols as Modulators of Aquaporin Family in Health and Disease”, in Oxidative Medicine and Cellular Longevity, volume 2015, →DOI:
topics: anatomy
medicine
sciences
glosses: Any structure having the appearance of a cord, especially a tendon or nerve.
topics: entertainment
lifestyle
music
glosses: Dated form of chord.
glosses: Misspelling of chord, a cross-section measurement of an aircraft wing.
Synonyms: sense: length of twisted strands
word: cable
sense: length of twisted strands
word: twine
sense: wires surrounded by an insulating coating, used to supply electricity
word: cable
sense: wires surrounded by an insulating coating, used to supply electricity
word: flex
Derived terms: bait-cord
bedcord
Bedford cord
body cord
bungee cord
bungy cord
central cord syndrome
citation cord
communication cord
cord-cutter
cord-cutting
cordectomy
cordel
corder
cord factor
cordgrass
cordite
cordless
cordlike
cordmaker
cordmaking
cordocentesis
cordopexy
cordotomy
cord set
cordset
corduroy
cordwood
cordy
cut the cord
cut the umbilical cord
detcord
detonating cord
detonation cord
discord
drawcord
emergency cord
extension cord
genital cord
hemicord
kill cord
kook cord
needlecord
nerve cord
neurocord
nuchal cord
oblique cord
paracord
power cord
primer cord
pullcord
pull cord
rheocord
ripcord
russel cord
sash cord
sex cord
spermatic cord
spinal cord
tailcord
trip cord
true vocal cord
umbilical cord
uncord
ventral nerve cord
ventriculocordectomy
vocal cord
vocal cord nodule
vocal cords
whipcord