sunder

verb

sun·der ˈsən-dər

sundered; sundering ˈsən-d(ə-)riŋ

Synonyms of sunder next

transitive verb

: to break apart or in two : separate by or as if by violence or by intervening time or space

intransitive verb

: to become parted, disunited, or severed

Choose the Right Synonym for sunder

separate, part, divide, sever, sunder, divorce mean to become or cause to become disunited or disjointed.

separate may imply any of several causes such as dispersion, removal of one from others, or presence of an intervening thing.

separated her personal life from her career

part implies the separating of things or persons in close union or association.

vowed never to part

divide implies separating into pieces or sections by cutting or breaking.

civil war divided the nation

sever implies violence especially in the removal of a part or member.

a severed limb

sunder suggests violent rending or wrenching apart.

a city sundered by racial conflict

divorce implies separating two things that commonly interact and belong together.

cannot divorce scientific research from moral responsibility

Examples of sunder in a Sentence

a family sundered by scandal during the cold war East and West Berlin were sundered by an impenetrable wall

Recent Examples on the Web And not now, as Israeli airstrikes crashed around him for the third week, erasing more of his neighborhood and sundering hundreds of families and friendships. —

TIME, 28 Oct. 2023 There’s no need to recount the specific policy disputes that sundered the caucus, because there were none. —

David Harsanyi, National Review, 12 Oct. 2023 As in all romances, what is sundered in the beginning must be joined together at the end; the world and all the people in it must be made whole. —

Merve Emre, The New Yorker, 27 Feb. 2023 TikTok had been without a permanent chief executive since August 2020, when Kevin Mayer, a former Disney executive, left after the Trump administration’s effort to sunder the app from its Chinese parent. —

Chang Che, New York Times, 16 Sep. 2022 But Wu worries that Beijing’s anger toward Pelosi’s visit may sunder the delicate connections between Taiwan’s business and political elite and mainland leaders. —

Grady McGregor, Fortune, 2 Aug. 2022 According to the WeChat users group, Trump’s Aug. 6 order would sunder the primary and often exclusive channel many U.S. residents use to communicate with family and friends in both China and the U.S. —

Edvard Pettersson, Bloomberg.com, 16 Sep. 2020 Cherry told other stories from that time: affairs, gruesome deaths, hearts sundered by grief. —

D. T. Max, The New Yorker, 10 Sep. 2019 During that time friendships have been sundered, garments rended, pearls clutched and block buttons exhausted. —

Eamon Lynch, Golfweek, 4 Feb. 2020 See More

These examples are programmatically compiled from various online sources to illustrate current usage of the word 'sunder.' Any opinions expressed in the examples do not represent those of Merriam-Webster or its editors. Send us feedback about these examples.

Word History

Etymology

Middle English, from Old English gesundrian, syndrian; akin to Old High German suntarōn to sunder, Old English sundor apart, Latin sine without, Sanskrit sanutar away

First Known Use

before the 12th century, in the meaning defined at transitive sense

Time Traveler

The first known use of sunder was before the 12th century

See more words from the same century