asunder

English

Alternative forms

• asundre, insunder (obsolete)

Etymology

From Middle English asunder, asondre, onsunder, on sondre, from Old English asundran, onsundrum (“asunder, apart, privately”), from Proto-Germanic *sunder, *sundraz. Equivalent to a- +‎ sunder. Cognate with Danish sønder, Swedish sönder, Dutch zonder, German sonder, Icelandic sundur, Faroese sundur and Norwegian sunder/sønder; akin to Gothic 𐍃𐌿𐌽𐌳𐍂𐍉 (sundrō).

Pronunciation

• (UK, Received Pronunciation) IPA^(key): /əˈsʌndə/
• (US, General American) enPR: ə-sŭnʹdər, IPA^(key): /əˈsʌndɚ/

• Audio (Southern England):

  (file)

• Audio (General American):

  (file)

• Rhymes: -ʌndə(ɹ)
• Hyphenation: asun‧der

Adverb

asunder (comparative more asunder, superlative most asunder)

1. (archaic, literary) Into separate parts or pieces.

   Synonyms: apart, in twain

   to tear asunder

   to crack asunder

   • c. 1597 (date written), William Shakespeare, “The Merry Wiues of Windsor”, in Mr. William Shakespeares Comedies, Histories, & Tragedies […] (First Folio), London: […] Isaac Iaggard, and Ed[ward] Blount, published 1623, →OCLC, [Act III, scene i]:

     Page. I warrant you, he’s the man should fight with him.
     Robert Shallow. […] It appears so by his weapons. Keep them asunder:

   • 1611, The Holy Bible, […] (King James Version), London: […] Robert Barker, […], →OCLC, Psalms 2:3:

     Let vs breake their bandes asunder, and cast away their cords from vs.

   • 1726 October 28, [Jonathan Swift], Travels into Several Remote Nations of the World. […] [Gulliver’s Travels], London: […] Benj[amin] Motte, […], →OCLC, (please specify |part=I to IV), page 57:

     He desired I would stand like a Colossus, with my Legs as far asunder as I conveniently could.

   • 1866, Charles Dickens, “The Signal-Man”, in All the Year Round:

     On both of those occasions, he came back to the fire with the inexplicable air upon him which I had remarked, without being able to define, when we were so far asunder.

   • 1985, Kate Bush, “Running Up That Hill”:

     You don't want to hurt me / But see how deep the bullet lies / Unaware that I'm tearing you asunder / There is thunder in our hearts

   • 2024 July 11, Theodore Schleifer, Jacob Bernstein, Reid J. Epstein, “How Biden Lost George Clooney and Hollywood”, in The New York Times‎, →ISSN:

     […] Mr. Clooney published his essay in The New York Times, and the president’s relationship with Hollywood was torn asunder.

Synonyms

• See also Thesaurus:asunder

Derived terms

• asunderness
• put asunder

Translations

into separate parts

Arabic: إِرْباً (ʔirban) Bulgarian: на парчета (na parčeta), на части (na časti) Chinese: Mandarin: 四分五裂 (zh) (sìfēnwǔliè) Czech: na kusy Dutch: uiteen (nl), uit elkaar, afzonderlijk (nl) Finnish: hajalle (fi), kahtia (fi) French: en morceaux German: in Stücke, entzwei (de), auseinander (de) Italian: in pezzi Japanese: ばらばらに (ja) (barabara ni) Occitan: en tròces m pl Polish: na kawałki Portuguese: em pedaços Russian: на ча́сти (na části), на куски́ (na kuskí), врозь (ru) (vrozʹ) Sanskrit: वि (sa) (vi) Scottish Gaelic: air leth Spanish: en dos, en pedazos Swedish: sönder (sv) Turkish: ayrı ayrı (tr), parça (tr)

Anagrams

• Urendas, asundre, dauners, enduras, unreads