cord

English

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cord

Wikipedia

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 *ǵʰer- (“bowel”)). More at yarn and hernia.

Pronunciation

• (General American) IPA^(key): /kɔɹd/
• (Received Pronunciation) IPA^(key): /kɔːd/

• Audio (US)

  (file)

• Rhymes: -ɔː(ɹ)d
• Homophones: chord, cored (in accents with the horse-hoarse merger), cawed (in non-rhotic accents)

Noun

cord (countable and uncountable, plural cords)

1. (countable) A long, thin, flexible length of twisted yarns (strands) of fiber (a rope, for example).

   The burglar tied up the victim with a cord.

2. (uncountable) Any quantity of such material when viewed as a mass or commodity.

   Synonym: cordage

   He looped some cord around his fingers.

3. 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.
4. 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.
   • 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:

     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.

   • 1886, Peter Christen Asbjørnsen, translated by H.L. Braekstad, Folk and Fairy Tales, page 187:

     "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."

5. (figuratively) Any influence by which persons are caught, held, or drawn, as if by a cord.
   • 1842, Alfred Tennyson, “To—”, in Poems. , volume I, London: Edward Moxon, , →OCLC, page 15:

     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, […]

   • 1900, Charles W[addell] Chesnutt, chapter I, in The House Behind the Cedars, Boston, Mass., New York, N.Y.: Houghton, Mifflin and Company , →OCLC:

     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.

6. (anatomy) Any structure having the appearance of a cord, especially a tendon or nerve.

   spermatic cord; spinal cord; umbilical cord; vocal cords

7. Dated form of chord: musical sense.
8. Misspelling of chord: a cross-section measurement of an aircraft wing.

Synonyms

• (length of twisted strands): cable, twine
• (wires surrounded by an insulating coating, used to supply electricity): cable, flex
• See also Thesaurus:string

Derived terms

Translations

Verb

cord (third-person singular simple present cords, present participle cording, simple past and past participle corded)

1. To furnish with cords
2. To tie or fasten with cords
3. To flatten a book during binding
4. To arrange (wood, etc.) in a pile for measurement by the cord.

Middle English

Noun

cord

1. Alternative form of corde

Romanian

Etymology

Borrowed from Latin cor, cordis.

Noun

cord n (plural corduri)

1. (anatomy) heart

   Synonym: inimă

Declension

Related terms

• cordial