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to sunder

to sunder

3 8.7
To break something into parts by force
  • verb
  • /ˈsʌndər/
  • Archaic
translation icon : dividir
  • The earthquake sundered the road, making it impossible to drive through.

The God like sunders itself into its shapes.

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Examples

  • The dual processes of liberalization and democratization were thus sundered (Erogul 1987: 119-138), and a new paradox in Turkish politics was defined.

    Academic text (1991)
  • When Africa sundered from Asia, the marks of the Pharaohs disintegrated.

    Fiction book (1992)
  • We can do nothing while the staff remains sundered.

  • For that strange week, we were a sundered family, being cared for in separate houses.

    Fiction book (2001)
  • The unity of the nation is sundered.

  • You can no more sunder slavery from the Confederacy than you can breathe from life.

    Blog text (27)
  • The two families, sundered in the ruin of a friendship, were united again first in new friendship and then in marriage.

    Fiction book (1992)
  • If her village and all valley dweller villages were to be sundered from the highlanders...

    Fiction book (2000)
  • Merriell rejects the earlier faith-reason division as sundering the unity of the work.

    Academic text (2003)
  • To either side, gray humps of weathered granite rose in cracked and sundered domes against the blue sky.

    Fiction book (1992)

Synonyms

to break apart
vsto sunder
26 3.0

To separate into pieces, for example a machine or a group

stresses violent or forceful breaking rather than any kind of separation
to splinter
vsto sunder
21 3.9

To break into many small, sharp pieces like wood or glass

refers to breaking broadly rather than producing tiny pointed pieces
to rend
vsto sunder
10 8.7

To pull something apart with great force

is similar but can mean general breaking rather than specifically violent tearing
to rift
vsto sunder
1 4.1

To split or break apart suddenly

is the general act of breaking, not limited to dramatic cases
to rive
vsto sunder
9.8

To split something violently with a sharp tool

is about forceful separation generally rather than cutting with a tool
to discerp
vsto sunder
  • Archaic
9.9

To tear something into separate parts, usually by force

is broader, meaning forceful breaking rather than focused tearing into parts

Antonyms

2.1

To join people or things into one group for a shared purpose

11 2.9

The place where two things meet and are fixed together

How Forceful

to shatter
72 2.8
to tear apart
  • Informal
21 5.6
to sunder
  • Archaic
3 8.7
to split
513 1.3
to separate
297 1.9

Surface Forms

sunder infinitive
sundered past
sundered past participle
sundering present participle
sunders third person singular

Etymology

Sunder comes from an old English word sundor meaning 'apart' and is the same root as asunder. So to sunder something is to force it 'apart' or split it into separate pieces, like a storm breaking a tree in two.