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PlainSpell

sand

/sænd/noun, adjective, verb

sand is spelled S-A-N-D: 4 letters and one syllable. It appears 28 times per million words in written English, the 3,364th most frequent word form (wordfreq, 2021 data). As a noun, sand means “Rock that is ground more finely than gravel, but is not as fine as silt (more formally, see grain sizes chart), forming beaches and deserts and also…” (English Wiktionary, September 2026). The plural of sand is sands.

How many letters and syllables are in sand?

Letters4: S-A-N-D
Syllables1 (from its American pronunciation)
In writing28 times per million words; the 3,364th most frequent word form
Wrong spellings searchednone measured in search
Rhymes with
Same letters

Sources: letters and syllables from the English Wiktionary's hyphenation or pronunciation and the CMU Pronouncing Dictionary; written frequency: wordfreq 3.1 (a 2021 snapshot of Wikipedia, subtitles, news, books, web text and social media); rhymes and same-letter words are computed by PlainSpell from its own word list.

How common is sand?

Sand appears 28 times per million words in written English, the 3,364th most frequent word form in the list.

Source: written frequency: wordfreq 3.1 (a 2021 snapshot of Wikipedia, subtitles, news, books, web text and social media).

How do you pronounce sand?

  • US /sænd/
  • [seənd] ~ [sɛənd]
  • British /sand/

Sand has one syllable (counted from its American pronunciation in the CMU Pronouncing Dictionary).

Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract). Recordings: En-us-sand.ogg, Wikimedia Commons (author and licence on each file's page).

What rhymes with sand?

The 12 most written words on PlainSpell end in the same sounds as sand from its last stressed vowel (/ænd/):

Spelled with the same letters in another order: nads.

Computed by PlainSpell from the pronunciations in the English Wiktionary (dump of September 2, 2026): a rhyme shares every sound from the last stressed vowel to the end; ordered by written frequency (wordfreq 3.1).

Forms of sand

  • sands plural, present, singular, he/she/it
  • sanding participle, present
  • sanded participle, past

Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract).

What does sand mean?

The meanings the English Wiktionary records, quoted as written there (source below).

noun

  1. 1

    Rock that is ground more finely than gravel, but is not as fine as silt (more formally, see grain sizes chart), forming beaches and deserts and also used in construction.

  2. 2

    A specific grade, type, or composition of sand.

  3. 3

    A beach or other mass of sand.

    The Canadian tar sands are a promising source of oil.

  4. 4

    datedPersonal courage.

  5. 5

    A particle from 62.5 microns to 2 mm in diameter, following the Wentworth scale.

  6. 6

    A light beige colour, like that of typical sand.

  7. 7

    obsoleteA single grain of sand.

  8. 8

    A moment or interval of time; the term or extent of one's life (referring to the sand in an hourglass).

    Cf. sands of time (idiom)

  9. 9

    colloquialEllipsis of sandpiper.

adjective

  1. 1

    Of a light beige colour, like that of typical sand.

verb

  1. 1

    To abrade the surface of (something) with sand or sandpaper in order to smooth or clean it.

  2. 2

    To cover with sand.

  3. 3

    To blot ink using sand.

Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract).

Sand in Spanish, French, German and Portuguese

LanguageWords
Frenchsable (finely ground rock), plage (beach or other expanse of sand), cran (personal courage), ton sable, teinte sable (light beige colour)
GermanSand (finely ground rock), Sandstrand (beach or other expanse of sand), Sandfarbe (light beige colour), schleifen, schmirgeln (to abrade with sand or sandpaper)
Portugueseareia (finely ground rock), praia (beach or other expanse of sand), arear, lixar (to abrade with sand or sandpaper)
Spanisharena (finely ground rock), playa (beach or other expanse of sand), lijar, alijar (to abrade with sand or sandpaper)

Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract). Translations are Wiktionary's, by sense; a linked word has its own PlainSpell page.

Where does sand come from?

Inherited from Middle English sond, sand, from Old English sand, from Proto-West Germanic *samd, from Proto-Germanic *samdaz.

Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract).

What to look up after sand