ground

1 grounds pl  the area around and belonging to a building an escorted tour of the White House and its surrounding grounds Synonyms demesne, park, premises (also premisses), yard Related Words acres, estate, land, lot, parcel, plot, property, real estate, realty; campus; backyard, churchyard, dooryard, schoolyard; close, enclosure (also inclosure), garden, garth, plaza

2 grounds pl  matter that settles to the bottom of a body of liquid strain the coffee to remove the grounds Synonyms deposition, dregs, grounds, precipitate, sediment, settlingsRelated Words lees; ooze, silt, sludge; dross, slag, waste

3 grounds pl  something (as a belief) that serves as the basis for another thing your dislike of her tattoos would be insufficient grounds for firing her Synonyms account, authority, grounds, motive, subject, wherefore, whyRelated Words antecedent, cause, consideration, impetus, incentive, inspiration, instigation, occasion, stimulus

4 a small area of usually open land I'll meet you at the parade ground in two hours Synonyms clearing, field, lot, parcel, plat, plot, tractRelated Words common(s), croft [chiefly British]; grass, green, greensward, lawn; glade, grassland, heath, heathland, lea (or ley), meadow, moor, pasture, pastureland

5 an immaterial thing upon which something else rests opposed to the notion that religious law should be used as a ground for civil law Synonyms basis, bedrock, bottom, cornerstone, footing, foundation, base, groundwork, keystone, root, underpinning, warp, warp and woofRelated Words anchorage, bed, brace, bulwark, buttress, framework, infrastructure, mount, prop, shore, stay, substratum, substructure, support; assumption, justification, premise (also premiss), presumption, presupposition, rationale, supposition, theory, thesis, warrant; backbone, center, core, cornerstone, eye, focus, heart, hub, kernel, keystone, nucleus, seat; essence, quintessence, soul, touchstone

6 the loose surface material in which plants naturally grow stuck the shovel in the ground and went inside for a glass of water Synonyms clod, earth, dirt, mold, soilRelated Words blackland, clay, gault [chiefly British], gley, guck (or gook), gumbo, kaolin, muck, mud; dust, gravel, sand; humus, loam, topsoil; alluvium, colluvium, detritus, loess, marl, sediment, shingle, silt; duff, mull; subsoil, substratum

7 the physical conditions or features that form the setting against which something is viewed take her picture against a blue ground in order to bring out her blue eyes Synonyms backdrop, backgroundRelated Words mise-en-scène, scene, scenery, set, stage; entourage, environment, milieu, setting, surroundingsNear Antonyms foreground; center, focal point, focus, heart

8 the solid part of our planet's surface as distinguished from the sea and air one of the Nordic creation myths states that the ground was formed by the body of the giant Ymir when he was killed by Odin and his brothers Synonyms dirt, dust, earth, land, soil, terra firmaRelated Words continent, landmass, zone; island, isthmus, mainland, peninsula