Cords

How to spell cords

5 letters · 1 syllable

How to pronounce cords

What does cords mean?

1. nounLengths of thin flexible rope, string, or insulated electrical cable.
2. nounInformal term for corduroy trousers.
3. nounAnatomical structures shaped like strings or bands, such as the vocal or spinal cords.

Cords in a sentence

• The extension cords were coiled neatly behind the desk.

• He wore a pair of brown cords to the autumn meeting.

• Years of shouting had strained his vocal cords.

• She tied the parcel with two short cords of twine.

• These velvet-ribbed cords are warm enough for winter walks.

• The surgeon explained how the spinal cords relay signals to the limbs.

Where does cords come from?

Language of origin: Greek

This word travels back to the Greek khorde, meaning 'gut' or 'string', because the earliest cords and instrument strings were made from animal intestines. The Greek term passed into Latin as chorda, then into Old French as corde, and English borrowed it during the 1200s as 'corde' and later 'cord', for a length of twisted fibres used to bind or tie. Interestingly, the musical and mathematical word 'chord' shares this very same origin, but scholars deliberately restored the 'h' to mirror the Greek spelling, while plain 'cord' kept the simpler French form. That split is exactly why 'cords' and 'chords' are such a stubborn homophone trap: same ancestor, two spellings. The same root also survives in 'cordon' and in 'cordage', the collective term for a ship's ropes.

How the word is built

• cord (string, from Latin chorda)
• -s (plural)