aground

adverb or adjective

ə-ˈgrau̇nd 

1

: on the ground

planes aloft and aground

2

: on or onto the shore or the bottom of a body of water

A ship ran aground during the storm.

Synonyms of aground

• stranded
• landed
• grounded
• beached

Examples of aground in a Sentence

the villagers came to stare at the foreign ship that was aground on their beach and at the strangely dressed sailors on board

Recent Examples on the Web

Just a couple years ago, an oil tanker ran aground on the lakes because they got trapped in a fog and didn’t have the most accurate maps, and the navigation systems failed them. — Hannah Agran, Midwest Living, 12 Aug. 2026

Not long afterward, their ship runs aground on an uncharted island heavily populated by dinosaurs. — Frank Scheck, HollywoodReporter, 9 Aug. 2026

River levels are so low that commercial ships have had to reduce their loads by as much as 80% to avoid running aground. — Laura Paddison, CNN Money, 5 Aug. 2026

An organization can grow without actually scaling to match, and if leadership misses that gap, things can run aground fast. — Richard Neal, Forbes.com, 4 Aug. 2026

Word History

First Known Use

14th century, in the meaning defined at sense 1

Rhymes for aground

• abound
• around
• astound
• background
• campground
• clothbound
• confound
• earthbound
• eastbound
• expound
• fairground
• foreground

Kids Definition

aground

adverb or adjective

ə-ˈgrau̇nd 

: on or onto the shore or the bottom of a body of water

the ship ran aground