asunder

asunder

English

WOTD – 18 April 2026

Pronunciation

  • (Received Pronunciation) IPA(key): /əˈsʌndə/
  • Audio (Southern England):(file)
  • (General American) enPR: ə-sŭnʹdər, IPA(key): /əˈsʌndəɹ/
  • Audio (General American):(file)
  • Rhymes: -ʌndə(ɹ)
  • Hyphenation: asun‧der

Etymology 1

From Middle English asunder, asonder (“apart in position, distant; apart in movement; to pieces; alone, separately; distinct in kind, different”),[1] asondri (“distinct, separate”),[2] onsunder, onsondre (“apart, asunder; alone, separately; especially, particularly (?)”),[3] from Old English onsundrum, on sundur (“asunder, apart, privately”),[4] probably from on- (prefix meaning ‘on, upon’)[5] (ultimately from Proto-Indo-European *h₂en- (“on, onto”)) + sundor, sunder (“alone, apart; separately; privately”)[6][7] (from Proto-West Germanic *sundr, from Proto-Germanic *sundraz (“alone, separate”), possibly from Proto-Indo-European *senH- (“apart; for oneself; without”)). By surface analysis, a- (prefix meaning ‘at; in; on’ denoting a condition, manner, or state) +‎ sunder (“(obsolete except dialectal) different; separate”).

cognates

Adverb

asunder (comparative more asunder, superlative most asunder) (archaic or literary)

  1. Of two or more people or things:
    1. Apart or separate from each other.
      • 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 48, column 2:
        Page. I vvarrant you, hee's the man ſhould fight vvith him. / […] [Robert] Shal[low]. It appeares ſo by his vveapons: keep them aſunder: […]
      • 1611, Thomas Heywood, The Golden Age, or The Liues of Jupiter and Saturne, with the Defining of the Heathen Gods. […], London: […] [Nicholas Okes] for William Barrenger, […], →OCLC, Act IV, signature H, recto:
        Heer's a coyle to keep fire and tovv a ſunder.
      • 1726 October 28, [Jonathan Swift], “The Author Diverts the Emperor and His Nobility of Both Sexes in a Very Uncommon Manner. […]”, in Travels into Several Remote Nations of the World. […] [Gulliver’s Travels], volume I, London: […] Benj[amin] Motte, […], →OCLC, part I (A Voyage to Lilliput), page 57:
        He deſired I vvould ſtand like a Coloſſus, vvith my Legs as far aſunder as I conveniently could. He then commanded his General, […] to dravv up the Troops in cloſe Order, and march them under me; […]
      • 1733, Philip Miller, “MUSHROOMS”, in The Gardeners Dictionary: […], 2nd edition, volume I, London: […] C[harles] Rivington, […], →OCLC, signature 5T, verso, column 1:
        [L]ay the Dung about a Foot thick, covering it over vvith light rich Earth, about ſix or eight Inches, into vvhich, on each Side, you ſhould put in ſome of the Knobs of Muſhroom Earth, about ſix Inches aſunder.
      • 1851 November 14, Herman Melville, “The Hat”, in Moby-Dick; or, The Whale, 1st American edition, New York, N.Y.: Harper & Brothers; London: Richard Bentley, →OCLC, page 591:
        [T]hese two never seemed to speak—one man to the other—unless at long intervals some passing unmomentous matter made it necessary. Though such a potent spell seemed secretly to join the twain; openly, and to the awe-struck crew, they seemed pole-like asunder.
      • 1864 February 5, James Anthony Froude, “The Science of History: A Lecture Delivered at the Royal Institution: February 5, 1864”, in Short Studies on Great Subjects. […], volume I, London: Longmans, Green, and Co., published 1867, →OCLC, page 22:
        Right, the sacrifice of self to good; wrong, the sacrifice of good to self;—not graduated objects of desire, to which we are determined by the degrees of our knowledge, but wide asunder as pole and pole, as light and darkness—one, the object of infinite love; the other, the object of infinite detestation and scorn.
    2. Moving apart from each other.
  3. (also figurative) Into separate parts or pieces, often due to some violent action.
    Synonyms: apart, in twain; see also Thesaurus:asunder
    to crack asunder    torn asunder
  4. (obsolete)
    1. Apart from other people; individually, separately; specifically, in private, privately.
    2. Chiefly in the form to know asunder: in a manner distinguishable from other similar things.
      • c. 1525, John Skelton, “Skelton Laureate against the Scottes”, in Alexander Dyce, editor, The Poetical Works of John Skelton: […], volume I, London: Thomas Rodd, […], published 1843, →OCLC, page 185, lines 92 and 96–98:
        Ye summond our kynge,—why dyd ye so? / […] / Know ye not suger and salt asonder? / Your sumner to saucy, to malapert, / Your harrold in armes not yet halfe experte.
        You summoned our king,—why did you so? / […] / Know you not sugar and salt asunder? / Your summoner too saucy, too malapert, / Your herald in arms not yet half expert.
        Spelled asondyr in the 1st edition.
      • 1625, attributed to Gervase Markham, “A Discourse of the Weald of Kent; and a Comparison of the Arable Lands therein, with the Other Parts of the Shire: Together with Some Necessary Counsels for the Ordering and Inriching of the Marleable Lands in the Weald, or Generally in Any Part of this Kingdome”, in The Inrichment of the Weald of Kent: Or, A Direction to the Husbandman, for the True Ordering, Manuring, and Inriching of All the Grounds within the Wealds of Kent and Sussex, […], London: […] G[eorge] P[urslowe] for Roger Iackson, […], →OCLC, page 8:
        Foure ſorts of Marle be found in this VVeald, knovvne aſunder by the difference of colours, and thereby alſo differing in degrees of goodneſſe one from the other: […]
      • 1722 March, H[enry] F[oe] [pseudonym; Daniel Defoe], A Journal of the Plague Year: […], London: […] E[lizabeth] Nutt […]; J. Roberts […]; A. Dodd […]; and J. Graves […], →OCLC, page 264:
        Some Parts of England vvere novv infected as violently as London had been; […] It is true, vve could not pretend to forbid their People coming to London, becauſe it vvas impoſſible to knovv them aſſunder, […]
Alternative forms
Derived terms
Translations

Adjective

asunder (comparative more asunder, superlative most asunder)

  1. (obsolete) Different, unlike.
Translations

Etymology 2

From Middle English asondren (“to alienate; to separate; to depart; to part company; to disappear”),[8] from Old English asundran, āsundrian (“to disjoin; to separate; to sunder, put asunder; to sever”)[9] (possibly influenced by onsundrum (adverb): see etymology 1), from ā- (prefix meaning ‘away; from’) (ultimately from Proto-Indo-European *úd (“away; out”)) + sundrian (“to separate, sunder”)[10][11] (from Proto-Germanic *sundrōną (“to separate, sunder”), from *sundraz (“alone, separate”) (see further at etymology 1) + *-ōną (suffix forming factitive verbs from adjectives)).

Verb

asunder (third-person singular simple present asunders, present participle asundering, simple past and past participle asundered)

  1. (transitive, archaic or literary) To set apart (one or more people or things) from other people or things; to put asunder, to separate, to sunder.
    • 1580, Thomas Tusser, “A Digression to Husbandlie Furniture”, in Fiue Hundred Pointes of Good Husbandrie: […], London: […] Henrie Denham [beeing the assigne of William Seres] […], →OCLC, stanza 10, folio 16, recto:
      A plough beetle, ploughſtaff, to further the plough, / great clod to a ſunder that breaketh ſo rough: […]
    • 1593, Barnabe Barnes, “[Elegies] Elegie II”, in Parthenophil and Parthenophe. Sonnettes, Madrigals, Elegies and Odes. […], [London]: [John Wolfe], →OCLC, page 76:
      Thou could not be perſvvaded that my vvittes / Could once retire ſo farre from ſence aſondred, […]
Derived terms
Translations

References

  1. ^ “asǒnder, -re, adv. & predicate adj.”, in MED Online, Ann Arbor, Mich.: University of Michigan, 2007.
  2. ^ “asǒndrī, adj. & adv.”, in MED Online, Ann Arbor, Mich.: University of Michigan, 2007.
  3. ^ “onsǒnder, adv.”, in MED Online, Ann Arbor, Mich.: University of Michigan, 2007.
  4. ^ Joseph Bosworth (1882), “on-sundrum, adv.”, in T[homas] Northcote Toller, editor, An Anglo-Saxon Dictionary […], Oxford, Oxfordshire: Clarendon Press, →OCLC, page 759, column 2.
  5. ^ Joseph Bosworth (1882), “on, prep. adv.”, in T[homas] Northcote Toller, editor, An Anglo-Saxon Dictionary […], Oxford, Oxfordshire: Clarendon Press, →OCLC, pages 744–746.
  6. ^ Joseph Bosworth (1882), “sundor, adv.”, in T[homas] Northcote Toller, editor, An Anglo-Saxon Dictionary […], Oxford, Oxfordshire: Clarendon Press, →OCLC, page 935, column 1.
  7. ^ “asunder, adv.”, in OED Online ⁠, Oxford: Oxford University Press, December 2025; “asunder, adv.”, in Lexico, Dictionary.com; Oxford University Press, 2019–2022.
  8. ^ “asǒndren, v.”, in MED Online, Ann Arbor, Mich.: University of Michigan, 2007.
  9. ^ Joseph Bosworth (1882), “a-sundrian, -syndrian”, in T[homas] Northcote Toller, editor, An Anglo-Saxon Dictionary […], Oxford, Oxfordshire: Clarendon Press, →OCLC, page 56, column 1.
  10. ^ Joseph Bosworth (1882), “sundrian”, in T[homas] Northcote Toller, editor, An Anglo-Saxon Dictionary […], Oxford, Oxfordshire: Clarendon Press, →OCLC, page 936, column 1.
  11. ^ “asunder, v.”, in OED Online ⁠, Oxford: Oxford University Press, December 2025.

Anagrams

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