Blur

How to spell blur

4 letters · 1 syllable

How to pronounce blur

What does blur mean?

1. verbTo make or become unclear, indistinct, or hard to see or distinguish.
2. nounA smear or area that is hazy and impossible to see or recall clearly.

Blur in a sentence

• verb

  A fingerprint on the lens can blur every photo you take.

• noun

  The whole wedding day passed in a happy blur.

• verb

  Tears began to blur the words on the letter.

• noun

  At that speed the passing fence was just a green blur.

Where does blur come from?

Language of origin: Germanic

The origin of blur is genuinely uncertain, which is why dictionaries hedge on it. It is first recorded in English in the middle of the 1500s, initially as a verb meaning to smear, smudge, or render indistinct, and the related sense of a stain or blot followed soon after. The most widely accepted suggestion connects it to the older word blear, meaning to make the eyes watery, dim, or sore, since a blear-eyed person sees the world out of focus. The short, blunt sound of the word fits a family of native English terms for messy, indistinct marks, such as blot and blotch. Because the spelling is so phonetic and the word is short, there is little to trip up a modern writer; the only thing to remember is the single final r rather than a doubled one.

How the word is built

• blur (single Germanic root word; no prefix or suffix)