redound
verb
Did you know?
A rising tide, as they say, lifts all boats. Or to be redundant: a redounding tide undulates such that the surrounding water elevates every pontoon. This latter sentence—in addition to featuring five words with some relationship to the Latin word for “wave,” unda (redundant, redound, undulate, surround, and water)—highlights the earliest and now-archaic meaning of redound, “to swell or overflow,” which entered English in the 14th century. Since then, additional uses of redound have abounded (abound being another unda relation), all containing ripples, however faint, of the original aqueous meaning. When an action or accomplishment redounds to someone’s credit or honor, for example, it reflects positively back on them the way a wave produced by someone jumping into a pool bounces back to the jumper. And when something redounds to someone’s advantage, one might say that it helps by accruing like, well, a rising tide.
Examples of redound in a Sentence
Michael Schuman, The Atlantic, 30 Oct. 2025
In this roundabout way, the pledge would redound to China’s benefit, too, as long as Beijing truly does not wish to use force to annex Taiwan.
—Stephen Wertheim, Foreign Affairs, 28 Oct. 2025
This has both saved lives and redounded enormously to our benefit economically, culturally, and socially.
—Khaleda Rahman, MSNBC Newsweek, 17 Oct. 2025
Fear and instability redound to the benefit of authoritarians, so violence done in the name of left-wing causes serves right-wing ends.
—Michelle Goldberg, Mercury News, 27 Sep. 2025
See All Example Sentences for redound
Cite this Entry
“Redound.” Merriam-Webster.com Dictionary, Merriam-Webster, https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/redound. Accessed 6 Nov. 2025.
Copy CitationKids Definition
redound
verb
Share