Ground

How to spell ground

6 letters · 1 syllable

How to pronounce ground

What does ground mean?

1. nounThe solid surface of the earth that a person stands or walks on.
2. verbTo prevent an aircraft from flying, or to confine someone as a punishment.

Ground in a sentence

• noun

  The keys fell to the ground when he stumbled.

• verb

  The storm will ground every flight out of the airport tonight.

• noun

  Frost had hardened the ground across the whole field.

• verb

  Strict parents sometimes ground a teenager for staying out late.

Where does ground come from?

Language of origin: Germanic

This word comes straight from Old English 'grund', which meant the bottom or foundation of something, including the floor of the sea or the lowest part of a valley. It belongs to a wide Germanic family, with close relatives such as German 'Grund' and Dutch 'grond', all carrying the sense of a base or bottom layer. Over the centuries the meaning rose from 'the bottom of things' to the more general 'surface of the earth' that we use today, while the older notion survives in phrases like 'breaking new ground' and 'a firm grounding'. The figurative senses, such as having good 'grounds' for an argument, grew naturally from the idea of a solid foundation to stand on. Be careful not to confuse this 'ground' with the identical-looking word that is the past tense of 'grind' (as in coffee that has been ground); they look the same but come from different roots.

How the word is built

• ground (native English noun for the solid surface of the earth); the verb senses derive from the same root, and the unrelated 'ground' that means crushed is the past tense of 'grind'