Blade

How to spell blade

5 letters · 1 syllable

How to pronounce blade

What does blade mean?

1. nounThe flat cutting part of a knife, sword, or tool.
2. nounA thin, flat, leaf-like part of a plant, oar, propeller, or similar object.

Blade in a sentence

• The blade of the kitchen knife had grown dull from years of use.

• A single blade of grass had pushed up through the crack in the pavement.

• He sharpened the blade on a whetstone before carving the roast.

• Each blade of the propeller was inspected before the boat went out.

Where does blade come from?

Language of origin: Germanic

The word comes from the Old English blæd, which meant 'a leaf' or 'the flat blade of an oar or spade', and which is rooted in the same Germanic family that gave German Blatt 'leaf'. The original sense was botanical, describing the broad flat part of a growing plant, and that meaning survives today when we speak of a blade of grass. From the idea of a thin flat surface, the word naturally widened to cover the cutting flat of a knife, sword, or tool. The spelling has stayed remarkably stable, with the silent final 'e' lengthening the vowel sound. Because it is a short native English word with a regular spelling, it has carried its core meaning of 'flat, leaf-like part' through more than a thousand years of use.

How the word is built

• blade (a single, undivided root from Old English blæd: leaf, flat part)